Chris Dodd

So, after failing to even be mentioned in the Iowa caucuses, Chris Dodd dropped out of the race. I have been an unabashed Dodd supporter over these last few months, and though I knew his cause was hopeless, I am no less grieved that I'll not have the opportunity to squander my vote on his good name. Everyone always asks me why I like Dodd so much, and the short answer is because he actually uses his position as Senator to try to accomplish something. Clinton and Obama and Biden and so on always talk about what they would do if they were president and had some real power, but the truth is that they do, but they spend their time wolfing down hot dogs and cotton candy in Iowa and New Hampshire instead. The long answer can be found by following all of these links:

• A profile from CQ Politics.
• Being boosted to replace the ignominious Harry Reid as Senate Majority Leader.
• A profile from HuffPo.
• Voting against Mukasey for Attorney General.
• Taking on shady student loan practices.
• Dragging Clinton and Obama along on resisting telecom immunity in the new FISA bill.
• Realizing that if you want to win populous states like Michigan in the general election, it's best not to piss them off in the primaries.
• Writing campaign emails that don't sound manufactured, and that sound like the actual candidate wrote it on the back of a napkin when he was cruising to his next campaign appearance, riding shotgun in a Honda.
• Not being afraid to say flat-out that no one will improve Republican voter turn-out than the possibility of Hillary Clinton as president.
• Supporting this new-fangled legal invention called "habeas corpus."
• Demanding a timeline for withdrawal of American troops from Iraq.
• Talking pretty about the environment.
• Not being afraid to say that if the Chinese keep putting toxic chemicals in toys, food, toothpaste and the like, we should probably reconsider our trade deals with China.
• Impressing Bob Novak by trying to help sort something out in Colombia.

Farewell, Senator Dodd. I hope to see you take your rightful place as Majority Leader soon.