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What should a president do about the crimes of his predecessor? Barack Obama had been "thinking about this for four weeks, really," says his advisor David Axelrod. The issue seems straightforward enough. What the CIA did to prisoners on behalf of the administration of former US President George W. Bush and its appalling legal advisers during the so-called "war on terror" was torture. And torture is a serious crime, not just in the United States, but almost everywhere else in the world. The next steps seem obvious enough: indict the guilty and send them to prison, end of story. Why,...

The conservative government watchdog group Judicial Watch filed an ethics complaint Friday against U.S. Sen. Christopher Dodd, saying the price Dodd paid for his cottage in Ireland amounted to a gift from a friend and accusing the senator of failing to report it as such on government disclosure forms. "It's relatively straightforward," said Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch. "It looks like he is getting taken care of in Ireland, and he's not reporting the nature of the gifts he is getting as a result of his being taken care of." Dodd's office responded angrily, attacking Judicial Watch's credibility, criticizing...

Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) said on Wednesday evening that the Obama administration was "ambivalent" about the bill's key provision and didn't make it as high a priority as credit card reform. The House-passed bill allows judges to renegotiate - or "cramdown" - mortgages for homeowners in bankruptcy. "They could have done--there was always some ambivalence about this. I've sensed that as well. The president said he was for it and that's pretty good," said Dodd. He then qualified his statement: "The administration said they were for it. I wouldn't expect much more probably. Credit cards is a larger issue. It's...

On Friday’s CBS Early Show, co-host Maggie Rodriguez asked Democratic Senator Chris Dodd about efforts by Congress to pass legislation that would punish credit card companies for charging higher fees and interest rates: "Senator, yesterday President Obama says that he wants legislation to stop credit card abuses. This is something that you have been pushing for, for years. And I don't have to tell you that there's been strong credit card lobby against this. Now that the President's on board, can you assure consumers that this will finally get done and when?...what's the likelihood?" Dodd responded by thanking Rodriguez and...

President Barack Obama still enjoys wide popularity across the country nearly 100 days since his inauguration, and he's now made it clear he's willing to leverage that political capital to help re-elect Connecticut's Democratic U.S. Sen. Christopher Dodd. Obama told the Boston Globe in an interview that Dodd "deserves the help." "I can't say it any clearer: I will be helping Chris Dodd because he deserves the help," Obama told the Boston Globe. "He just has an extraordinary record of accomplishment, and I think the people of Connecticut will come to recognize that." The president's comments should quell any murmurs...

<p>WASHINGTON (AP) - Wealthy Wall Street executives may be outcasts to some Americans, but not to Democratic Sen. Chris Dodd.</p> <p>Facing his toughest re-election fight, the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee is reaching out to the financial sector's deep-pocketed donors for the campaign cash he needs to hang onto his Connecticut seat.</p>

Michael V. O’Hare, the bookkeeper to Senator Thomas J. Dodd of Connecticut whom the senator mainly held to blame — calling him “a liar and a forger and a thief” — in a case that ultimately led the Senate to censure Mr. Dodd in 1967, died March 15 in Chapel Hill, N.C. He was 73. SNIP .... [T]he (Senate Select Committee on Standards and Conduct) looked into possible financial improprieties, with Mr. O’Hare using documents to support his accusation that Mr. Dodd had sent travel expense bills for speaking engagements to both the Senate and the group he was addressing,...

Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd raised $4,250 from five state residents in the first three months of 2009. Close to 400 donors outside Connecticut made up the rest of the donations, according to the Connecticut Post.

Sen Dodd & The DC Political Class Of great concern to all should be today’s revelation that only five (yes only five) Connecticut residents donated to Senator Dodd’s campaign this year. It suggests that Congress is controlled not by those representing their constituents, but by an insular, if not impervious political class. So what’s wrong with a powerful government staffed by political insiders? Look at the former socialist republics in Eastern Europe. Milovan Djilas, the Yugoslavian Communist leader, observed that socialism’s transfer of power from the private sector to the government did little other than create a “new class” of...

WASHINGTON -- U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd appears to have looked everywhere but his home state to fuel what pundits anticipate will be one of the most hotly contested races in the nation in 2010. The five-term incumbent reported raising just $4,250 from five Connecticut residents during the first three months of the year while raking in $604,745 from nearly 400 individuals living outside the state. While incumbents often turn to special interests for early campaign fundraising, Dodd's out-of-state total seems unusually high and comes at a time when he has been plagued by poor approval ratings among state voters. Massie...

U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd appears to have looked everywhere but his home state to fuel what pundits anticipate will be one of the most hotly contested races in the nation in 2010. The five-term incumbent reported raising just $4,250 from five Connecticut residents during the first three months of the year while raking in $604,745 from nearly 400 individuals living outside the state. While incumbents often turn to special interests for early campaign fundraising, Dodd's out-of-state total seems unusually high and comes at a time when he has been plagued by poor approval ratings among state voters. SNIP Overall, Dodd's...

How Big Finance is trying to keep the Senate banking chairman's imperiled political career afloat. __ As Senator Chris Dodd fights for his political career, the embattled chairman of the powerful Senate banking committee is receiving his own economic rescue package from the finance industry. According to the five-term senator's latest campaign disclosures, filed earlier this week, the financial sector is flooding Dodd's campaign war chest with donations in advance of what is expected to be a tough reelection bout.

Michael V. O'Hare, 73, an aide to U.S. Sen. Thomas J. Dodd of Connecticut whose accusations of financial improprieties against his boss led the Senate to censure Dodd in 1967, died March 15 at the University of North Carolina Hospitals in Chapel Hill of complications from a stroke. He lived in Chapel Hill and had been a Washington area resident for 45 years. Mr. O'Hare, who began working for Dodd in 1961, was one of four staffers who copied more than 4,000 documents from Dodd's files and provided them to syndicated columnists Jack Anderson and Drew Pearson. The files purportedly...

"Hey, you hear about this? Very strange incident at JFK Airport in New York City today. An AIG executive going through security had to empty out all his pockets. You know what fell out? Senator Chris Dodd." --Jay Leno

Robert Menendez carried out his duties as the chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee today when he told a reporter from The Hill that he "absolutely" stands by his colleague, Chris Dodd - who has fallen 16 points behind his likely 2010 Republican challenger in the latest Connecticut poll. "Are you serious?" Menendez asked the scribe. "Chris Dodd is going to be re-elected. He's a great senator." This is what his Democratic colleagues elected him to do, so Menendez's rally-around-the-incumbent fervor is perfectly understandable. After all, it was his sly backroom maneuvering last spring on behalf of fellow New...

April 2, 2009 - Dodd Falls Way Behind As Approval Drops To Lowest Ever, Quinnipiac University Poll Finds; Voters Are Angry At AIG Bonuses And Blame Dodd Word format Connecticut Sen. Christopher Dodd trails former U.S. Rep. Rob Simmons, a possible Republican challenger, 50 - 34 percent in the 2010 Senate race, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today, as voters disapprove 58 - 33 percent of the job the Democratic incumbent is doing, his lowest approval rating ever. Matched against two other possible Republican challengers, Sen. Dodd trails both State Sen. Sam Caligiuri 41 - 37 percent and...

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — U.S. Sen. Christopher Dodd's standing with Connecticut voters continues to plunge as a new poll released Thursday shows only one in three people approve of his job performance. The Quinnipiac University survey says the five-term veteran's approval rate is at a career low, and that he would lose his seat to either of two declared Republican challengers if the election occurred today. That's even though many people admitted they don't know much about either challenger. Slipping below a 50 percent approval rating is often considered a red flag for incumbents, and Quinnipiac Poll Director Douglas Schwartz...

Here’s the poll shocker of the day. Embattled Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) is in severe political danger, trailing former GOP congressman Rob Simmons by 16 points, 50 to 34 percent, according to a new Quinnipiac poll. Among independent voters, Simmons leads Dodd by 31 points -- 56 to 25 percent. Dodd also trails little-known state senator Sam Caligiuri by four points, 41 to 37 percent. Dodd’s approval ratings are in the tank, with 58 percent of Connecticut voters disapproving of his job performance and only 33 percent viewing him favorably. He doesn’t even have support within his own party –...

Great constitutional moment on Glenn Beck/FNC: First he sets up Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal by asking him why he is not going after Sen Chris Dodd for his AIG campaign money. Blumenthal replies that that is outside of his authority as CT AG. So Beck grills him on : "What law AIG employees broke that gave him authority as AG to investigate and bully the AIG employees?" Remember that Blumenthal used(abused) his power to Subpoena the names of those that got bonuses and released them to public, sending ACORN bullies to their private homes to harass them and demand...

For Republicans, Sen. Chris Dodd isn’t the only vulnerable Democrat in Connecticut. They see potential in several congressional districts despite the Democrats holding all five House seats and the state turning a darker shade of blue in the last two cycles. “From a big-picture perspective,” said Chris Healy, the chairman of the Connecticut GOP, “the legislative actions by this Congress in concert with the Obama administration are causing many people to express serious doubts about what they voted for in the last election.” The GOP already has two House candidates lined up and a top contender in state Senate Minority...