Probably will preserve the seat for D’s.
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[…] Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » The Dodd Steps Aside […]
Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.
Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.
JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?
But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.
I did not have this on my fuck 2022 bingo card.
If you are still in the GOP, you are an extremist.
Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.
Hot air and ill-informed banter
“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”
Not all heroes wear capes.
A Senator Walker would also be an insult to reason, rationality, and decency.
That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.
The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.
If you’re pissed about Biden’s speech, he was talking about you.
If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.
People are complicated. Love is not.
Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.
No one could have predicted…
You can’t love your country only when you win.
A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.
A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.
No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.
An almost top 10,000 blog!
You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.
Napoleon
Well Kudos to Dodd for stepping aside and letting the Dems have a better chance to hold on to the seat (I have the opposite view of Dorgan, he is wimping out from the fight and basically handing the seat to the Reps). I have to admit this surprises me a little.
Comrade javafascist
That bastion of liberal media NPR told me on Morning Edition that this was bad news for Democrats because…well…they didn’t mention other than to point out Dems were defending four open seats which, by my admittedly liberally-biased math equals two less than Republicans will be defending. Excellent news for John McCain indeed.
SGEW
Chris Dodd found a dead fish nailed to his desk, signed “Rahm,” is what happened here, I imagine (or, rather, I’d like to imagine).
TR
I love Chris Dodd, and this only cements it — thanks for taking one for the team. Nice to see that not all Connecticut Senators are egotistical assholes.
asiangrrlMN
Thanks, Dodd, for being a mature adult about this. It’s very refreshing to see.
Stroszek
Blumenthal has already announced his intention to run. The seat is “safe Dem,” but I’m sure the fanatical liberals at NPR will bring on Cokie Roberts and Erik Erickson to “debate” how awful this is for Democrats.
Brian J
Just yesterday I said this was probably the case. So like, I can see the future and stuff? Awesome!
Ideally, the Republicans will still try to plow money into this race only to see it wasted as it’s not spent in Florida, North Dakota, and other places. Kind of like what happened when Lieberman became the defacto Republican nominee in 2006.
Max
Blumenthal is going to run. He’s announcing at 2:30pm. He is already polling far ahead. This seat just went from a likely D loss to a guaranteed D win.
Good news for the GOP and bad news for Obamarahm, I’m sure.
OT – I saw this tweet this am and it seemed to me a perfect example of what our “esteemed” media has become.
It’s from Patrick Gavin (Politico) to Andrea Mitchell. He congratulates her for TV face time, not breaking a story, or good investigative journalism. Nothing matters to the people, except getting their lifted, pulled back and botox’d faces on tv.
Wankers.
cmorenc
@TR
All in good time. In 2006, the main push against Lieberman’s reelection was fueled by his ardent support of Bush’s approach to the Iraq war and National security, and not on any widespread perception that he’s an egomaniacal asshole who’s a traitor on a wide front of issues. He hadn’t pulled his stunt yet of appearing at the GOP convention against Obama in 2006.
This time around, Ct voters know exactly what kind of selfish corrupt prick they’ve got for a Senator – he’s going to have a far tougher time winning reelection, either as a supposed “independent” “Ct for Lieberman” candidate, or an outright party-switcher to the GOP. Lieberman will again carry the GOP vote, and some of the Jewish vote, but not nearly as well as he did in 2006 – AND: he’ll be running in the face of a Presidential year that will bring LOTS more dem-leaning voters out in a dem-leaning state.
About the only thing that could mess this up and save his sorry butt in 2012 is: take a guess: someone with an even greater vainly selfish colossal ego than Lieberman. Yep: Ralph Nader (who let it be known a few weeks back he was mediatating on whether to run for the CT Senate seat in 2012). OTOH Nader (someone I used to admire) can only succeed (if he runs) if he can suck away from the Dem candidate enough brain-dead voters, the sort who fashion themselves as such pure, principled progressives that if Nader can’t win, there’s no worthwhile difference between the other candidates.
Napoleon
@cmorenc:
I just don’t see how Holy Joe hangs on to that seat. Not only will a whole lot of voters in CT be ready to dump him but there will be a lot of people across the nation just dieing to contribute to who ever will take him on for the Dems.
He is toast.
Stroszek
@cmorenc: The hilarious thing about Nader is that he himself would likely be functionally no different from a Republican as he would almost certainly reject every Democratic bill as cripplingly imperfect. Like Kucinich, he would be a great congressman in the minority and utterly useless in the majority.
Anyway, the biggest thing working against Lieberman is that there are plenty of Republicans who want that seat. He can’t win if Rell or Simmons seek their party’s nomination, but he might run just to play spoiler for the Dems.
John Cole
Apparently I was wrong last night- Obama is the Godfather.
Rhoda
As hard as it was to get three democratic retirements announced on Tuesday: I think it was a good thing. In CT, the DSCC isn’t going to have to spend as much to defend that seat. The Republicans will likely pick up ND, so it balances out somewhat. Then we have CO, they have a lot of possibilities to run for governor and I think a stronger candidate, a better candidate who isn’t hated by labor would do more to help Bennett and the entire ticket.
I kinda wish Reid would announce his retirement too; it would save the democrats a hella lot of money in an uphill fight. Through, given how screwed the Republican party is in NV he might pull this off.
Brian J
@Stroszek: Wouldn’t Rell actually be better than Lierbernan in a lot of ways? She’s certainly a moderate, and while that is no guarantee she would help us, it’s hard to see how she could be worse for us than Lieberman.
Bad Horse's Filly
@John Cole: You beat me to it Cole. I was going to snark on that….but I’ve only had 1/2 cup of coffee so I’m not on my game yet.
August J. Pollak
Ultimately a tragedy in my eyes, since if Dodd held the seat Blumenthal would be making Lieberman do Dodd’s disgraced I-can’t-win backup two years from now. Lieberman is probably the person who benefits most from this other than Blumenthal himself; his most dangerous challenger for 2012 just got out of the way.
TR
@Napoleon:
You’re right, Lieberman won’t win again. His negatives outweighed his positives as early as last year, and I’d have to think his preening opposition to a HCR bill that his state supported by a 2-to-1 margin will only finish the job.
parksideq
@Napoleon: Here’s my concern with Lieberman: I bet that he retires in 2012. He’s so craven and egomaniacal that he’d rather leave the Senate “on his own terms” than face the repudiation of his constituents. Plus, he’d be denying Dems nationwide the satisfaction of voting him out if he quits, and that’s always a plus in Lieberman’s book.
Honestly, I hope he’s delusional enough to think that he can run and win again, but 2006 proved that he’s pretty self-aware of his electoral chances and how to manipulate them to his advantage. Seeing that his 2012 re-election chances are slim to none, my best guess is that he bows out.
KCinDC
@Stroszek, I’m sure they’ll get to that later. For now, I just heard NPR say in the news segment, not commentary, that Dodd’s retirement increases chances of big Republican gains in the congressional elections.
Ben
Blumenthal would almost certainly win. Lieberman will almost certainly lose.
shortstop
Who knew that Joe Lieberman could look like even more of a self-centered, unprincipled little shit? Thanks, Chris, for doing the right thing.
As for Lieberman’s reelection prospects: Right, the guy won’t win again under any party label, and he knows it. He’s not going to run again, which is what makes him such an unbridled (yes, even worse than before) pain in the ass now. With nothing to lose and a boatload of petty bitterness, he’s already unofficially begun his post-Senate lobbying career for insurance and pharma. Expect the next three years to be the “How Low Can You Go, Joe?” show.
CalD
I actually think Dodd would have had less trouble getting re-elected than seems to be widely assumed. But it’s certainly looking like an easier win without him.
Brian J
@CalD:
Do you think there’s some sort of special position waiting for him in another part of the government?
valdivia
@Max:
maybe Dana Milbank can use his new weekly column to write a paean to her and Halperin can dedicate her a 5 top things you think Andrea is doing right.
CalD
@Brian J: I hadn’t really thought about it from that angle. It’s a possibility though, now that you mention it.
CalD
@cmorenc:
More importantly perhaps, I doubt Republicans will sit the next one out on the sidelines like they did last time. There’s a definite possibility Lieberman decides to run as a Republican himself next time around. That’s arguably his best shot at another term in the Senate. But I wouldn’t call it a slam dunk that he could survive a primary challenge from the right in that case, even in CT.
Mike Kay
@cmorenc:
(sniffle) But then Nader can’t run for president (sniffle)
mds
Well, if the field included Simmons and/or Rell, he wouldn’t be facing a serious primary challenge from the right. Remember, this is the guy who first got elected by running to the right of Lowell Weicker. Most of his nominally progessive positions manage to disappear if you shine any light on them.
catclub
Nader will be about 76 and running for a first term.
Even if he is in great shape, that is awfully old for a freshman senator.
Nick
Wow
PPP just released their numbers and they have Blumenthal leading Simmons by 31 points, 59%-28%, breaking 60% against McMahon.
Connecticut isn’t even remotely competitive anymore.
John
Wouldn’t Rell actually be better than Lierbernan in a lot of ways? She’s certainly a moderate, and while that is no guarantee she would help us, it’s hard to see how she could be worse for us than Lieberman.
I don’t see Olympia Snowe or Susan Collins voting for health care. Lieberman sucks, but he is nonetheless still better than the best Republican on a lot of things.
Tonal Crow
For D’s what?
Paul L.
Leave it to Media Matters to try and defend Dodd.
Media report on Dodd’s “sweetheart deal” without noting Ethics Committee cleared him