Bye, Bye Chris Dodd

[bcassill]

Barney Frank just lost a friend (with benefits)...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1262...LEFTTopStories

[Mega]

Re: Bye, Bye Chris Dodd

Once he knew "Crusty" on the case.............
Mike

[doom&gloom]

Re: Bye, Bye Chris Dodd

AMF! Don't let the door hit ya on the way our asswipe.

[tsetsefly]

Re: Bye, Bye Chris Dodd

he admitted that the election for him was "almost unwinnable"

I hope schiff takes that seat...

[Ghent12]

Re: Bye, Bye Chris Dodd

he admitted that the election for him was "almost unwinnable"

I hope schiff takes that seat...

Schiff has said two things in the recent past about Dodd. 1) Winning against him is the easy part; getting the Repuklican nomination is the hard part. 2) If Dodd steps down, which he now has, that might take the wind out of the sails, so to speak. The urgency or enthusiasm of the CT race might suffer as a result.

[mikedev10]

Re: Bye, Bye Chris Dodd

i read schiff has raised more money than all his republican opponents combined. last i saw his polling numbers went from 0 to 5%. he isn't far behind because people find him unfavorable; he's far behind because nobody knows who he is. his unknown rating was really high. better start putting that money to use.

[MulaMan]

Re: Bye, Bye Chris Dodd

If all Shiff ever does in politics is help get rid of Dodd then he has already done more for the country than 95% of the fake republican Fox News crowd.

[Ghent12]

Re: Bye, Bye Chris Dodd

i read schiff has raised more money than all his republican opponents combined. last i saw his polling numbers went from 0 to 5%. he isn't far behind because people find him unfavorable; he's far behind because nobody knows who he is. his unknown rating was really high. better start putting that money to use.

Right, but I heard that a popular Demoncrat is going to be running for the seat, making a Repuklican victory inconceivable. "Hope" is good in its own right, but by itself it is extraordinarily weak.

[icm63]

Re: Bye, Bye Chris Dodd

He saw Peter Schiff running up his jacksee !

[we_are_toast]

Re: Bye, Bye Chris Dodd

Right, but I heard that a popular Demoncrat is going to be running for the seat, making a Repuklican victory inconceivable. "Hope" is good in its own right, but by itself it is extraordinarily weak.

Yep, Chris restored some hope, now if Reid and Landau get the message, we'll really have some hope.;)

[rtchoke]

Re: Bye, Bye Chris Dodd

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/cfa9948e-f...44feab49a.html

The move opens the door for Richard Blumenthal, Connecticut's attorneygeneral, to run for Mr Dodd's seat in the election. Mr Blumenthal, a popular Democrat who is seen as a stronger candidate than Mr Dodd, said he would seek to end "unconscionable" interest rates on credit cards.

With Blumenthal in the race, I think it is going to be an uphill battle for Schiff. Blumenthal strikes me as God Like around here.

[GRG55]

Re: Bye, Bye Chris Dodd

Barney Frank just lost a friend (with benefits)...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1262...LEFTTopStories

Ya gotta love the media spin on this...like he was some sort of true reformer. Geezuz, what next, Madonna becomes a born again virgin?

[Now that he's "leaving government", going to be interesting where he lands in the FIRE sector]

Dodd Exit Throws Jolt to US Financial Reforms

Published: Thursday, 7 Jan 2010 | 12:03 AM ET

Senator Christopher Dodd made himself a lame duck on Wednesday, reducing his clout in the U.S. Senate as an advocate for tighter financial regulation but also liberating himself from political pressures with consequences that are difficult to predict...

[BK]

Re: Bye, Bye Chris Dodd - Bye, Bye Schiff

Chris Dodds retiring is the end to Peter Schiff Political career- I hope I'm wrong. But, as much as I dislike many Democratic Politicians I remain in awe of their abilities as Politicians and to get out the vote. Blumenthal is a five term Attorney General who has been smart of enough never to run for the Deadend job of being the Governor of Conn. The Conn Democratic Machine will be operating at full speed and the will get out the vote in the large Cities.
Bluementhal's fund raising in the coming months will make Peter Schiffs campaign look like a Lemonade stand - an Attorney General for 5 terms there are a lot of Big dollar contributors who will be donating. Just a guess -I'm often wrong.

[Rajiv]

Re: Bye, Bye Chris Dodd

Then there was this - Dodd To Treasury?

Roll Call speculates that Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-CT) may not be retiring after all -- he may trade his office in the Senate's Russell Building for one in the Treasury. Could he replace Tim Geithner as Treasury Secretary? It's not beyond the realm of possibility, but I doubt it.
Roll Call says:

For instance, several Democratic Senate aides noted that Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is an extremely unpopular figure in the Senate. Geithner has also taken the brunt of the criticism for the administration's handling of the economy and, these sources speculated, if the country's financial picture does not brighten before Election Day, he could be the first secretary to leave the administration.
Although Dodd would appear to be well-situated to take control of Treasury if the position were to open, it may not be smooth sailing for his nomination.

I have a few thoughts about this. The conspiracy theorist pragmatist in me wonders if the Obama administration promised Dodd a prominent position -- even if it isn't Treasury Secretary -- in order to secure his promise not to seek re-election. Dodd's prospects of winning in November were relatively dim, and the Obama administration knows that it can't lose any Senate seats if it wants to push through its ambitious agenda in the second half of its term. Powerful Senators tend not to be meek or humble, so I find it surprising that Dodd wouldn't want to go down without a fight, unless he had some other incentive to throw in the towel early.

Yet, Roll Call makes an important point about potential trouble with the nomination process. There's a reason why Dodd may have lost re-election: he's become a very controversial figure, having been accused of being in bed with the banking and finance industry prior to the crisis. As Faiz Shakir at Think Progress notes:

Dodd's cozy relations with Countrywide and A.I.G. could subject his nomination to a messy confirmation battle.

Obviously, Republicans won't make the process easy, but given these allegations, I wonder if even Democrats worry that Dodd is too poisonous, particularly for very prominent administration post like Treasury Secretary. I also think the Obama administration might look like it has egg on its face if it dumps Geithner. Republicans would surely use that as an opportunity to claim that the President is admitting his economic policies administered through Geithner didn't work. Politically, even if things are still bad in the latter part of this year, the Obama administration might be smarter to just use the "it takes time to clean up a mess this big, so we should stay the course" talking point instead of scapegoating Geithner.

So while I think it's possible that Dodd could very well end up in the Obama Treasury in some capacity, I'd be pretty surprised if he got the top post. Maybe he could run the one of the new agencies that financial regulation seeks to create -- like the Consumer Financial Protection Agency. Something like that seems a lot more likely to me than Dodd replacing Geithner.

[GRG55]

Re: Bye, Bye Chris Dodd

Then there was this - Dodd To Treasury?

Let's wait and see where in the recently resuscitated FIRE economy the retiring Sen Dodd lands...;)

As for Geithner, it would appear that his fate depends mostly on Larry Summers. As long as Summers stands by his man, Geithner isn't going anywhere. But if it becomes politically necessary to make a sacrifice to the election gods in this mid-term year...well...:p