| 1.
BOSTON GLOBE, September 25, 1981
The Senate, rejecting appeals from the Administration, voted narrowly yesterday to impose conditions on aid to El Salvador, requiring President Ronald Reagan to certify that progress is being made to correct human rights violations and to hold free elections in the Central American nation.
New England's delegation has played a major role in pressing for these conditions, and while the final wording is far softer than some members wanted, it represents the first time either house in Congress has imposed such restrictions on the Administration. The White House had wanted the members to approve a nonbinding resolution simply stating the "goals" of American policy in El Salvador, but this was resisted both by Percy and two major Democratic sponsors, Sens. Claiborne Pell of Rhode Island and Christopher Dodd of Connecticut.
2.
WASHINGTON POST, July 13, 1983
CHRISTOPHER J. Dodd is the brash senator from Connecticut who has dated Bianca Jagger, instigated a 4 a.m. doughnut fight, fought with Sen. Jesse Helms--and delivered the Democratic rebuttal to Ronald Reagan's Central America speech, suggesting the president was condoning Salvadoran security guards who, he said, murder people "gangland-style--the victim on bended knee, thumbs wired behind the back, a bullet through the brain." Some in the Connecticut senator's own party were angry he'd done it, saying he'd politicized foreign policy...
....
Dodd is liberal enough to have recently attracted the ire of the conservative press. Human Events, the conservative weekly that is Ronald Reagan's favorite newspaper, calls his career an "odyssey from liberalism to far left," adding that "his current pronouncements would allow a virtual takeover by foreign Communists of a huge chunk of Central America." Dodd has opposed funding for the MX missile, was one of eight senators to vote against Reagan's historic tax cut in 1981...
3.
DETROIT FREE PRESS, November 29, 1987
[Senator Dodd] is pushing hard for a proposal to guarantee up to 18 weeks of job leave for parents who give birth or adopt or whose children are seriously ill. He's currently working to defuse corporate opposition to that bill, led by the national Chamber of Commerce, and working on committee compromises that he hopes will permit its passage this Senate session.
When he first proposed the bill last year, critics labeled it a bill for yuppies, because it only guarantees leave without pay, which some might not be able to afford.
Observers considered Dodd's reply a brilliant stroke. He brought the Boggs family from rural Myrtle Beach, S.C., to testify at a hearing on the bill. The mother testified about losing a job because of time spent waiting in hospitals with their baby boy, born with a defective windpipe. The father, a traveling salesman with a thick Carolina accent and a down-home manner, talked of a parent's constant worry.
"Mr. Boggs, are you a yuppie?" Dodd asked.
"No, sir," the man replied, leaving no one unconvinced.
4.
CHARLOTTE OBSERVER , February 1, 1987
Indeed, Reagan played his contra card with a flourish Tuesday night: ``I will fight off an effort to cut off their lifeblood. ...There will be no Soviet beachhead in Central America.``
His rhetoric may be hollow. You could sense the coming storm Wednesday when Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., began a drive to block $40 million of the $100 million Reagan already won for the contras, bar future contra aid and stress Central American peace.
``We made a deal with the devil,`` said Dodd, citing Iran arms money illegally siphoned to the contras. ``Let`s start new from this administration`s rubble.``
Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., leaped in: ``I`m tired of people bashing Ronald Reagan and blaming America first.``
``I don`t bash my country,`` flared Dodd.
5.
THE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, August 19, 1988
Managua -- U.S. Senator Christopher Dodd made a test run of Democratic Party policy here yesterday and came away with mixed results.
Touting what he called a nonconfrontational, post-Reagan "policy of understanding and peace," Dodd was rewarded by the Nicaraguan government with the announcement that the Catholic Church radio station, Radio Catolica, will be allowed to reopen.
The anti-government station was closed last month by authorities as part of a government crackdown on opposition activity.
Emerging from three hours of talks with President Daniel Ortega and Defense Minister Humberto Ortega, the Connecticut senator said the reopening is "an encouraging sign that shows that further progress can be made toward achieving peace." Dodd also said he received assurances from the Sandinista government that it will extend indefinitely a cease-fire with the U.S.-backed Nicaraguan rebels.
6.
SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS, March 30, 1990
Supporters of the $27 billion [child-care] bill labeled it the most significant social legislation since the late President Johnson's Great Society measures 25 years ago. The bill would expand the Head Start program, create new, school-based care for latchkey children and give states money to place more poor children in day care.
...
Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., sponsor of the Senate version, praised the House action as signaling "a national child-care policy is within reach."
7.
BOSTON GLOBE , February 11, 1996
For their part, Clinton and his aides were more saddened than defensive.
Clinton's gamble on Sinn Fein -- taken at the urging of Northern Irish leader John Hume and prominent Irish-American leaders like Sens. Chris Dodd of Connecticut and Edward M. Kennedy -- helped buy an IRA cease-fire that stretched past 17 months before Friday's blast. Barbed wire and barricades vanished from the streets of Belfast and Londonderry. Peace talks began. And Clinton was met warmly by both Protestants and Catholics when he toured Ireland last fall.
8.
NEW HAVEN REGISTER (CT), March 30, 2001
Midway through the two-week debate on reforming the nation's campaign financing laws, lawmakers hit a crucial point. There were sensitive negotiations going on and procedural questions looming - and Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., was looking for the man in charge.
"Where," he wanted to know, "is Senator Dodd?"
Although the well-known names on the campaign reform bill are McCain-Feingold, the dominant face and voice on the Senate floor and on C-SPAN for much of these last two weeks have been Connecticut's senior senator's.
As the ranking Democrat on the Senate Rules Committee, it has been Sen. Christopher J. Dodd's job to shepherd the McCain-Feingold bill through the free-wheeling, often unpredictable debate and the tangled web of amendments and challenges.
On Thursday the bill cleared what many believe was its final difficult hurdle, and after two years of unsuccessful attempts to even get a full Senate debate, campaign finance reform appeared to have enough votes for passage.
9.
I am endorsing Chris Dodd for President.
There is a recent bit of analysis out that says the election is boiling down not to policy difference, but to different theories of change. Under this analysis, Hillary believes you use corporations and the establishment to leverage change while building in protections for the little guy. Obama believes that you find hidden middle ground, and discover a consensus out of supposedly competing interests. Edwards believes you apply force and pressure to the system, until the system is ready to compromise.
I completely agree with the analysis, but I find the more interesting division is between those that are theorizing and those that are doing.
When you have a proven history of change, the theory is a footnote.
Dodd entered the Senate the very year the conservative movement arrived to dismantle the the progressive dream wholesale. Yet in that environment, in the 25 year period that will go down as the Conservative Era, he found ways to expand and extend that progressive dream.
Sometimes it was by getting on TV and telling the truth, no matter how offensive the civilized members of his party may have found it.
Sometimes is was through thoughtful negotiation with enemies. Other times it was through skillful navigation of complex rules of parliamentary procedure. Sometimes it was a late evening bulldozer push. And yes, sometimes it was about waiting to the 17th hole of golf to bring up the question of Gerry Adams's visa.
But it was always about how to get things done.
I've seen this on the campaign. Confronted with any new tool, the first question that occurs to Team Dodd is not "Can we use this for marketing?" but "How can we use this to advance our progressive agenda?"
So while Hillary took online suggestions for a campaign song, Dodd took online suggestions for filibuster reading material. While Obama built up his MySpace account, Dodd and his team built tools to route anti-FISA calls to Senators. While other campaigns invited bloggers to phone calls where the latest talking points were recycled, Dodd invited us into war-room like sessions where the strategy for cutting war funding was discussed and explained.
Personally, I believe we are at a 1932 moment in history. The last gasp of the Reaganism that tainted even the Clinton administration is being played out on that Republican debate stage. After November, they will sweep the remains of that grand movement into the dustbin of history.
You could choose those that stood back, and waited until history was on their side before they moved bold agendas forward. You could hope that their theories of change were correct.
Or you could choose the person, who, against all odds, advanced the progressive agenda through every means at his disposal.
I've seen Dodd sailing against the wind and been amazed. I can only imagine what he will do with the wind at his back.
Please join me in supporting Chris Dodd.
[Note: This represents my personal endorsement as one of the three co-founders of Blue Hampshire. It is not meant to represent an endorsement of BH as a whole -- BH will not be endorsing anyone as a site this season.] |
