Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I didn’t have alien invasion on my 2023 BINGO card.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.

Bark louder, little dog.

Trump’s legal defense is going to be a dumpster fire inside a clown car on a derailing train.

Democrats have delivered the Square Deal, the New Deal, the Fair Deal, and now… the Big Joe Biden Deal.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

T R E 4 5 O N

I was promised a recession.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

I really should read my own blog.

Let’s finish the job.

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

No Justins, No Peace

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

Not all heroes wear capes.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

Every one of the “Roberts Six” lied to get on the court.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

You are here: Home / Politics / The Dodd Steps Aside

Reader Interactions

34Comments

  1. 1.

    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.

  2. 2.

    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.

  3. 3.

    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).

  4. 4.

    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.

  6. 6.

    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.

  7. 7.

    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.

  8. 8.

    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.

    congrats to @mitchellreports. AP says she “logged more TV face time than any other network evening news reporter during the past decade”

    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.

  9. 9.

    cmorenc

    @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.

    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.

  10. 10.

    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.

  11. 11.

    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.

  13. 13.

    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.

  14. 14.

    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.

  16. 16.

    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.

  17. 17.

    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.

  18. 18.

    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.

  19. 19.

    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.

  21. 21.

    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.

  22. 22.

    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.

  24. 24.

    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.

  26. 26.

    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.

  28. 28.

    mds

    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.

    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.

  29. 29.

    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.

  30. 30.

    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.

  31. 31.

    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.

Comments are closed.

Trackbacks