Tag: connecticut

I count coup on Senator Chris Dodd (D-Countrywide).

False modesty be damned.

I do not claim the scalp – that honor is collectively shared by the VRWC as a whole – but by God I will count coup on the man.  He’s going out the door, and he didn’t want to go, and his party’s leadership didn’t want him to go.  He’s going because a lot of people – including myself – kept reminding the Connecticut electorate that Chris Dodd was a corrupt suckweasel of a Democrat; and while as a Republican I may be worse off with Richard Blumenthal entering the race, as an American I’m better off with Dodd leaving it.

So good job to everybody else who helped take Dodd down, too.

Moe Lane

PS: So, who should be next on the list?

Crossposted to RedState.

Sen. Dodd (D, CT) to be eased out?

Well, that’s the rumor that Jim Geraghty is hearing; that the Cook Political Report is declaring DOOM at this point argues that the Democrats probably should send Chris Dodd back to his Irish mansion.  On the other hand, Dodd has been showing no signs of wanting to go gently into that good night; and on the gripping hand… if national Democrats had this kind of power, wouldn’t they have used it on Corzine, Paterson, and Deval Patrick?

Crossposted to RedState.

Three new races to look at.

Drawing on and expanding from Jim Geraghty’s summary:

  • IA-03. D+1.  Leonard Boswell is the incumbent (first elected 1997); Cook currently does not list the district as in play (Likely Democratic).  Former wrestler Jim Gibbons (no campaign website yet) has just announced; he’ll be facing former National Guard chopper pilot Dave Funk in the primary.
  • MN-01. R+1. Tim Walz is the incumbent (first elected in 2006); Cook currently does not list the district as in play (probably because the Congressman won handily in 2008).  Former state legislator (and lightning rod) Allen Quist has declared; he’ll be hammering Walz on the latter’s support of the ‘stimulus,’ cap-and-trade, and health care rationing.
  • CT-04. D+5.  Jim Hines is the incumbent (freshman); Cook currently lists the district as in play (Likely Democratic).  Rick Torres (no campaign website yet) joins Rob Russo, Dan Debicella, Rob Merkle, & Will Gregory as competing for the Republican nomination.

Yup, the 2010 campaign season’s started. Time to start paying attention to your own, local races…

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

Gov. Jodi Rell (R, CT) not running for re-election.

This is interesting.

HARTFORD, Conn. — Connecticut Gov. M. Jodi Rell says she will not seek re-election next year.

Rell made the announcement in a news conference with reporters Monday at the statehouse in Hartford.

The article indicates that her personal polling has slipped – all the way down to 59%; she was also looking at a Q-poll which had her six points ahead* her most likely Democratic rival. It’s possible that this was enough to trigger her desire to get out of political life, especially in a year that’s starting to look bad for non-conservative incumbents. Then again, it’s possible that this was enough to trigger her desire to switch political gears and enter a race where she’d end up being neither.

Note: that last is a guess.  And a very speculative one, at that.  And it may be the right guess, but the wrong election cycle…

Moe Lane

*Which tells you… pretty much nothing. Quinnipiac hasn’t been at its best this cycle.

Crossposted to RedState.

See Dodd spin. Spin, Dodd! Spin!

Senator Chris Dodd (D, Irish Mansion CT) is having a time of it with this sweetheart Countrywide loans thing.  First off, the Senate Ethics investigation somehow managed to avoid going after him for his activities, which meant that Dodd thought that he could start repairing the damage to his fundraising reputation (H/T: Instapundit):

U.S. Sen. Christopher J. Dodd is saying it’s time to move on from the long-running Countrywide Financial VIP loan scandal.

[snip]

“I feel the matter’s behind us,” Dodd said. “We ought to move on.”

Continue reading See Dodd spin. Spin, Dodd! Spin!

Simmons outraised Dodd in 3Q.

970K for Simmons; 900K for Dodd.  Please also note that Dodd’s spokesman carefully did not mention his candidate’s cash-on-hand while making excuses for Dodd’s lackluster third quarter, which suggests that the lobbyist crony* is having problems on that front, too.  Couple that with his ongoing Countrywide problem, and one has to wonder what the next set of polls will look like…

Moe Lane

PS: Rob Simmons, Sam Caligiuri, and Peter Schiff are all running for the right to defeat Dodd.  We’re fortunate to have a strong field for that primary.

*Note that the K Street availability mentioned in that link was in the third quarter.  Maybe Dodd should start thinking about spending more time with his family?  Ireland is a lovely place to live, I understand.

Crossposted to RedState.

Dodd upset over questions about wife’s conflict of interest.

No word yet whether he was sipping wine from a jeweled chalice and gnawing on a drumstick at the time.

There are times when you don’t need to go past the title and subtitle:

Dodd Says Questions About Wife’s Role in Health Care Industry ‘Offensive’
Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., whose wife Jackie Clegg Dodd sits on the boards of four health care companies, disputes the suggestion that his wife’s career could pose a conflict of interest.

It really does say it all, doesn’t it? We’re facing a ‘universal health care system’ scheduled to cost us at least 1 trillion and decrease the number of uninsured by maybe one-third; and the guy who is helping get that boondoggle enacted into law is also the guy who’s been playing games with his financial disclosures. Again.

And yet, bringing up the minor little detail that his wife is on the board of four health care companies is apparently Beyond the Pale, if you’ll pardon the pun.  Well, it’s not.  This is not an aristocracy, and Dodd is not a Duke: his actions are ultimately accountable to the population of both Connecticut, and the nation.  If he cannot grasp that concept, he does not have to keep being a Senator.

Speaking of which…

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

Chris Dodd (D-CT) thinks that you’re all a bunch of Nazis.

[UPDATE] Welcome, AoSHQ readers.

Because you can tell the difference between pouring water on a towel held over the mouth of three separate individuals (and under very carefully controlled conditions), and sending 17 million people to the gas chamber*.


(H/T: Melissa Clouthier)

But, do you know something? Don’t get mad.

Get even.


More here.

Moe Lane

*For the record: this comment does not mean that I deny you your right to disapprove of the former. Merely that Dodd’s equation of it with the latter neatly shows why we have Godwin’s Law in the first place.

Crossposted to RedState.

Rob Simmons: *I* can get in-state donations.

That was essentially Rob Simmon’s response to Jim Geraghty when the latter called him up to get his reaction to the news that Sen Chris Dodd (D-CT) received only five in-state donations this quarter.  Simmons also went on to opine that he was pretty sure that he himself could get more than five in-state donations that day.

Which, given the way that Dodd polls these days, may not be not a brag.

Crossposted to RedState.