So, Chris Dodd thinks the first installment of TARP funds has been “terribly mismanaged” by President Bush and his administration (forget for the moment that he was one of the lead negotiators and voted for the plan as is). As the leader of the Senate Banking Committee, he wants us to know that he is committed to making sure this terrible mismanagement doesn’t continue if the Obama administration gets the rest of the $700 billion tax dollars. And this, apparently, is how he is going to go about it (from Politico, H/T TPM, emphasis mine):
Dodd said he’s prepared to draft legislation, mirroring a bill proposed by Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass) last week, to call for a broadening of the TARP program and for more oversight, but he said that a letter from Obama’s team – instead of additional legislation – could be sufficient to alleviate concerns in Congress.
Got that? The new plan is to make Obama promise to be more responsible than GWB, cross his heart and hope to die, stick a needle in his eye. Even HuffPo doesn’t buy it.
I understand that an awful lot of people across the country drank the Obama Kool-Aid and believe that he is going to save the country from whatever George Bush did to it. But it is a little frightening to think that our senior senator has apparently done the same thing, to the point that he thinks he can just take O’s word for it.
Cross-posted at The Artful Doddger.
Q: How can you tell when Chris Dodd is lying?
6eorge Jetson Wednesday, January 14th at 9:59AM EST (link)A: When his lips are moving
As Francis Cianfrocca stated in his superb diary Obama Reinterprets the TARP–Dont Be Fooled
IMO, the Prime Directive, avoid a global financial collapse of catstrophic proportions, was achieved. (And surely a stronger surge in the socialist weenie sentiments this country has come to hold.) Which raises the question: Are we in a break-glass-in-case-of-fire today in January? I think not. And we can always break the glass later if necessary.
Francis went on to opine
And remember, that in any transaction, as long as it’s not a give-away, you trade one item for another. With the TARP, taxpayers are trading cash today for rights to our cash back in the near future. (Yes, bearing some risk.) But with stimulus spending items, taxpayers are trading our cash today for items of dubious value, that localities have (defacto) decided not to fund is like blowing someone else’s money at the county fair. You come home w/ a lot of junk.
Good work CTVoter2010! Dodd is vulnerable in 2010 How about
red_oakster Wednesday, January 14th at 11:16AM EST (link)some posts on who could knock him off. This is a Toricelli-type opportunity. Is there someone in the Nutmeg state that you think could have the appeal and the finances to do it?
It would be a huge contribution CTVoter, if you could post from time to time on possible Dodd opponents
Here are some older posts on 2010 election
CTVoter2010 Thursday, January 15th at 11:32PM EST (link)http://theartfuldoddger.blogspot.com/2008/12/new-poll-shows-dodds-vulnerability-in.html
http://theartfuldoddger.blogspot.com/2008/11/challengers-for-2010.html
More recently, Pete Schiff has emerged as a potential challenger. You can check out his site at http://www.schiff2010.com/. Though he hasn’t officially announced, it seems there is a pretty strong push being made to convince him to. He could be a good candidate, but his connection to Ron Paul could hurt him up here in Connecticut, where many CT voters think of Paul as a kook. Of course, these are the same people who think it has been a good idea to keep re-electing Dodd, so their judgment isn’t really worth much.
Governor Rell would probably give Dodd a run for his money, but that would almost certainly leave the Governor’s mansion to current AG Richard Blumenthal (D), which would really suck.
Rob Simmons and Chris Shays are currently looking for work. Simmons I think would be good. I was never a Shays fan, but just about anything is better than Dodd.
And I’ve mentioned it before, but I think Kevin O’Connor would be an interesting candidate. He was Connecticut’s US Attorney from 00-08, served as AG Gonzales’ COS post-scandals, and then as Mukasey’s Associate AG. He has campaign experience from a Congressional run in CT-01 in 1998. He’s a young, clean cut guy with no ethical baggage like Dodd, who has good name recognition and will be looking for work in a matter of days.
I am strongly in favor of potential challengers getting their names out there ASAP. Dodd is so vulnerable right now, it would be a shame to give him the opportunity to rehabilitate his image before the campaigning kicked in, and the media isn’t going to do enough to hold him accountable. So whoever it is, I hope they step up soon.
“…among his intimate friends he was better known by the sobriquet of ‘The Artful Dodger,’ [and] Oliver concluded that, being of a dissipated and careless turn, the moral precepts of his benefactor had hitherto been thrown away upon him.” - Oliver Twist
http://www.theartfuldoddger.blogspot.com
"This is a Toricelli-type opportunity."
bk Wednesday, January 14th at 11:18AM EST (link)So you think he’ll be replaced by CT’s version of Frank Lautenberg?
oops that was meant as a reply to red_oakster
bk Wednesday, January 14th at 11:18AM EST (link)could be a happier ending
red_oakster Wednesday, January 14th at 11:50AM EST (link)Dodd probably is too vain to step aside and CT courts not as corrupt. With the right candidate, Dodd could find himself in trouble.
The bigger point is that a place like red state should be creating its own version of the 50 state strategy by thinking aloud and vetting possible candidates.
Conrad in North Dakota is another sweetheart deal and we should be ready to respond.
You can’t expect establishment groups like the Senate GOP campaign committee to think outside the box. But people at red state can and should.