Caught up in the high-profile shuffle that has been the contest for the 2008 Democratic Presidential nomination thus far is the senior Senator from Connecticut Chris Dodd. Labeled as a solid member of the "second tier," polling in the single digits in most states, and barely getting time to speak during the first two debates of the cycle, Dodd has been saying all the things that many people on this blog and elsewhere want to hear right now but has not quite registered with many people. It would be easy to blame the mainstream media for this - they seemingly love the "three way" race between Clinton, Obama, and Edwards and don't seem to think 2008 will be the year of the insurgent darkhorse. But, my friends, I think it is time those of us with the power to propel such a darkhorse give a man like Chris Dodd a second look.
Dodd's father, Thomas Dodd, was a US Senator from Connecticut from 1959 to 1971. A prosecutor at the Nuremberg Trials, the elder Dodd made a name for himself when he introduced the 1968 Gun Control Act. After suffering a stroke, he decided not to run for re-election in 1970. While his father was in the Senate, Dodd attended Providence College, graduate in 1966, and served in the Peace Corps in the Domincan Republic until 1968.
Following his father's departure from the Senate, Dodd decided to enter public service and ran for Congress in the 2nd Congressional District in 1974. Elected as a member of "Watergate class," Dodd was re-elected in both '76 and '78 before running successfully for the Senate in 1980. Re-elected to the Senate more times than anyone else in state history, Dodd's largest achievement has been the Family Medical Leave Act of 1993 which provides workers with rights regarding pregnancy and illness.
In 2002, Dodd voted in favor of the Iraq War Resolution but has recently become one of Washington's most tireless leaders in opposition to the escalation of the war. Of the four US Senators currently running for the Democratic nomination, Dodd was the only one to co-sponsor Feingold-Reid which cut off funds for the war while the other candidates, minus Biden, simply voted for it. In addition to just opposing this war, as noted in a frontpage diary by mcjoan, Dodd has been hard at work to promote the Restoring the Constitution Act which will return habeas corpus protections the President eliminated.
In May, Dodd announced his plan for a carbon tax that would greatly reduce corporate carbon dioxide emissions and the proliferation of global warming.
So what is so special about Chris Dodd? Well, take a look for yourself. Whether it is leading the fight to end this war from his seat in the Senate or offering an innovative strategy to fight global warming, Dodd has been saying (and doing) all the right things. To this viewer, he is putting his money where his mouth is on a lot of issues that many people who read and contribute to this blog care about and I think his biography and record deserve some attention.
The truth is, many people blog in order to reclaim the sense of participatory democracy that is lost in the generation meida coverage of Paris Hilton's jail sentance and Anna Nicole's baby rather than dead American troops or rising gas prices. We know this and that is why we are here. But, at the same time, I feel that we ignore candidates like Dodd even though we come here to seperate ourselves from mainstream media. That medium ignores him, but we inpsire/are inspired by that media whether we like it or not.
So do our democracy a favor - give Chris Dodd a little love. I promise he won't dissapoint. Sure, he's a darkhorse. But people like us have the ability to make him not a darkhorse and if you are not satisfied with the media candidates, why not give it a shot - especially for a man who is saying/doing all the things a progressive candidate should be.