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Interesting...check out the man who wants to challenge Chis Dodd.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) is doing just about everything it can to take down Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), who has emerged as its best incumbent target of the 2010 election cycle. But its vice chairman, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), isn't helping the cause on that front. In an interview that aired on National Public Radio on Thursday morning, Hatch praised Dodd as "one of the better senators here." Hatch was being interviewed alongside Dodd on Democratic efforts on health care, and despite their differences, a love fest ensued. "Now, I want to compliment Chris, because when Sen. (Ted)...

So, are you tired of the permanent campaign yet? Here in Connecticut, it's all Chris Dodd, all the time, as he runs one ad after another and scurrying around the state in his struggle to rebuild his shattered image ahead of his 2010 day of reckoning. But the 2012 presidential campaign, which one anticipates Sen. Dodd will sit out in favor of fellow Democrat Barack Obama, is also well under way. At least six likely Republican presidential challengers have visited Iowa, site of the caucuses that presumably will mark the formal opening of the 2012 proceedings. Others have been on...

After all his lying about his sweetheart mortgages, his Irish cottage, the AIG bonuses and his wife's appointments to corporate boards, would you buy a used car from Sen. Christopher Dodd? Then why would you buy his health-insurance coverage? Sen. Dodd has proposed a government-run health-care program that the Congressional Budget Office estimates would taxpayers cost a mere $61 billion a year over the next decade. Sen. Dodd said KennedyDoddCare would "dramatically reduce the number of uninsured — fully 97 percent of Americans will have coverage, a major achievement." A major achievement, all right — in duplicity. This is a...

Raising Money To Unseat DoddThree GOP Hopefuls Filling War Chests In Preparation For 2010 Election By CHRISTOPHER KEATING The Hartford Courant July 8, 2009 Greenwich millionaire Tom Foley has raised more than $530,000 in the first 26 days of his U.S. Senate bid to unseat Democrat Chris Dodd. Another Republican hopeful, former U.S. Rep. Rob Simmons, says he has raised more money than Foley, but the exact total is not due until the official filings July 15. A third, state Sen. Sam Caligiuri, has raised about $125,000, but he says that his total is artificially low because he was distracted...

Health Reform: A Senate health care bill will force Americans to buy health insurance whether they want it or not. Where the extra doctors to treat them will come from is anybody's guess...Debby Smith, the uninsured cancer patient hugged by President Obama, is also a Democratic operative. She is a member of Organizing For America, a group that is a project of the Democratic National Committee, and Smith was invited to the event by the White House itself...Acknowledging that many are uninsured because they choose to be, a Senate version of medical reform imposes fines of $1,000 for uninsured people...

Health Reform: A Senate health care bill will force Americans to buy health insurance whether they want it or not. Where the extra doctors to treat them will come from is anybody's guess.When even the venerable Helen Thomas gets upset at an Obama show and tell, you know the sales job for health care reform and other goodies is not going well. "I'm amazed at you people who call for openness and transparency," said Thomas, a view we share. Thomas accused the White House of "controlling the press" and said just about all Obama events are "prepackaged." White House press...

JULY 3, 2009 New Evidence on the Foreclosure Crisis Zero money down, not subprime loans, led to the mortgage meltdown. Article STAN LIEBOWITZ. What is really behind the mushrooming rate of mortgage foreclosures since 2007? The evidence from a huge national database containing millions of individual loans strongly suggests that the single most important factor is whether the homeowner has negative equity in a house -- that is, the balance of the mortgage is greater than the value of the house. This means that most government policies being discussed to remedy woes in the housing market are misdirected. Many policy...

With each day Senator Chris Dodd's hold on the Senate seat he has held for almost 30 years grows more tenuous. As the Chair of the Senate Banking committee he deserves a share of of the blame for the economic mess we are in now, and on top of that there are the recent scandals in which he has been involved. Nine moths ago it was disclosed that the Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee Received TWO VIP Loans from Sub-Prime Lender Countrywide Inc. The Loans were at favorable interest rates. Then in February we learned of a new "funky"...

LISTS IRISH HIDEAWAY'S WORTH AS MERE $638G Sen Dodd (D-Conn) may have low-balled value of Ireland vacation property. Dodd's financial disclosures claim $638,000 for his 3-bedroom cottage on 10 acres with breathtaking views of the Atlantic......Dodd's next-door neighbor was selling for $1.2M. "Dodd continues to mislead about the property's value," charged DC-based ethics watchdog, Judicial Watch. Dodd purchased 1/3 interest for $160,000 with William Kessinger, Kansas, who was a business partner of disgraced Bear Stearns principal Edward Downe Jr, Dodd's longtime friend. Downe pleaded guilty to insider trading and securities fraud in 1993 but was pardoned, at Dodd's urging, by...

With Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) facing an uphill battle to win reelection next year after a series of Washington scandals battered his popularity back home, President Obama and other national Democrats are sparing no effort to help him. Despite the scandals which left his ethics called into question, the three-decade Senate veteran is not trying to shake his Beltway image. Instead, Dodd is working furiously to show the impact of his long service by racking up big legislative accomplishments - including, potentially, a health care reform bill - before the midterm elections. And some of the national Democratic Party's biggest...

....the dubious Democrat from the Nutmeg State said it is "offensive" the media would suggest that his wife, Jackie Clegg Dodd, has potential conflicts of interest because she sits on the boards of four pharmaceutical firms. Democrat Dodd is the point man for upcoming health-care legislation....with Sen. Ted Kennedy ailing. That's the same Chris Dodd who "just happened" to get Countrywide sweetheart mortgage loans --- the subject of a Senate Ethics Committee probe. Dodd says an ethics lawyer gave a clean bill of health on his wife's potential conflicts of interest......that raising these questions is "offensive" because husbands of female...

Sen. Chris Dodd, the dubious Democrat from the Nutmeg State, told a recent interviewer that it was "offensive" that the media would suggest that his wife, Jackie Clegg Dodd, has potential conflicts of interest because she sits on the boards of four pharmaceutical firms. With Sen. Ted Kennedy ailing, Dodd is the Democratic point man for upcoming health-care legislation. Of course, this is the 21st century. Spouses of powerful pols have their own -- often quite successful -- careers. Of course, everybody knows that Mrs. Dodd received no special consideration because of her powerful spouse -- because Sen. Dodd says...

Irish property prices have plummeted since 2002. But a "cottage" in County Galway owned by Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd has tripled in value during the same period, according to a financial disclosure form filed by the Senator this month. There are two possible explanations for this remarkable turn of fortune. Maybe Mr. Dodd is luckier than a leprechaun. Or could it be that he paid well below the market price...

One of the great dangers in dealing with a crisis is making major, long-term decisions based on the immediate circumstances unique to the problem you're trying to fix. In the case of the current financial crisis the conventional wisdom is that it is the result of poor oversight and loose regulation, so the Obama administration's answer is to layer on more regulations and greatly expand the role of the Federal Reserve. But the cure may be worse than the disease. It's not often I agree with Democratic Senator Chris Dodd, but he hit the nail on the head when he...

Sen. Christopher Dodd vowed to forge on with consideration of health-care legislation in the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, despite the slow progress on the hundreds of amendments to the bill already introduced. Dodd, D-Ct., on Thursday acknowledged that the multitude of amendments - most offered by Republicans - has produced a drawn-out process. "Certainly, stalling it is not helping it at this point," Dodd said. "My job is to be fair and to keep the process moving forward." In the next two days, Dodd said he plans to fill in controversial provisions of the bill that currently...

Big week in Washington, what with final action on the tobacco regulation bill, under the leadership of Sen. Christopher Dodd. Congress has really been on a roll. Remember how they passed that consumer credit card bill under the leadership of Sen. Christopher Dodd and the Helping Families Save Their Homes Act sponsored by Sen. Christopher Dodd? There is, of course, still so much to do. We're hoping for a strong health care bill like the one co-written by Ted Kennedy and Sen. Christopher Dodd. And the Obama plan to create a new agency to protect consumers of financial products. It...

Health Care: The CBO says a government-run health care system would cause 23 million Americans to lose private coverage, cost $1 trillion dollars and still leave 30 million uninsured.The Congressional Budget Office, not your typical right-wing think tank, has looked at the Affordable Health Choices Act, as unveiled by Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Edward Kennedy, and found the word "affordable" to be false advertising. We have looked at it and found the word "choices" to be as meaningless as being told you can buy any car you want — as long as it's a Ford. The CBO director says on his...

Ethics: Sen. Dick Durbin cashes out of the market and invests with a key Democratic contributor after a Treasury briefing warning of collapse. Meanwhile, Sen. Chris Dodd's Irish cottage appraises at triple the value he's disclosed.Those investors who rode the stock market down to the bitter end and saw their 401(k) accounts evaporate in the morning sun could have used the information Senate Majority Whip Durbin had at his fingertips on Sept. 19, 2008, when he sold $42,696 worth of mutual fund shares. By the end of September, Durbin had sold investments totaling $116,000.

Washington, D.C. –U.S. Senator Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.), Ranking Member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee and the Senate’s only accountant, today criticized wasteful spending in a health care reform bill released by HELP Committee Democrats this week. “The Kennedy-Dodd bill will pave sidewalks, build jungle gyms, and open grocery stores, but it won’t bring down health care costs or make quality coverage more affordable,” Enzi said. “In a time of record debt and deficits, how can Democrats justify the wasteful spending in this bill? “We need to root out the waste, fraud and abuse that is...