Scandal-Plagued Democrat Senator Chris Dodd Retires at Lowest Point in Career

Scandal-Plagued Senator Chris Dodd of Connecticut retiresat the lowest point in an overly long, 35-year, political career. The son of a career politician (his father occupied one of Connecticut's senate seats for 12 years), Dodd has seen his already overly long, Senate career deteriorate among many scandal-plagued issues in the last few years, thus leading to some of the worst poll numbers of his career and a near-impossible matchup against his potential, Republican challenger for his seat. Though Democrats gave Dodd a big role as one of the primary advocates of the ill-fated healthcare "reform" pushed by Obama-how they seriously thought that would rehabilitate his damaged image is beyond me, considering Obamacare is very unpopular with the American people-it nonetheless failed to turn around his sagging fortunes.

The proverbial writing on the wall was in effect for Dodd as soon as the scandalous news erupted about Countrywide Financial giving him two sweetheart deals on mortgages, notoriously dubbed the "Friends of Angelo" scandal. This scandal was particularly deadly for Dodd as it came at the most sensitive time for Americans, many of whom where feeling the brunt of the housing crisis and mortgage foreclosures.

In addition to the aforementioned, out-and-out scandal, Dodd was also scandal-plagued as it related to just always seemingly being involved in many unpopular pieces of high-profile legislation or policies. In example, Dodd, was co-author of the $700 billion Wall Street bailout (read: failure of throwing money away), portions of the $787 billion "stimulus" package (read: another failure), and of course the $900 billion Obamacare bill that just passed the Senate. Wow, in retrospect, it sure as heck looks like Dodd's biggest contribution to his time in the Senate was wasting the American people's hard-earned money!

As if the above wasn't enough-and believe me, it makes one scratch his head as to how Connecticut could keep reelecting this piece of work with his abysmal track record!-Dodd also perpetrated what some could see as a payoff to AIG executives, for whom Dodd removed a provision in Obama's "stimulus" bill blocking bonuses to them. "Coincidentally," said company contributed $300000 to Dodd over 10 years!

In the present, Dodd's troubles from the preceding scandals have affected his reelection chances so adversely that for the past year, he's consistently trailed his potential, GOP challenger, Rob Simmons, in polls, with one of the most recent in December showing Dodd losing by 13 points. Inarguably, Dodd sees the writing on the wall himself and knows that his goose is proverbially cooked. In fact, why don't we stick a fork in Dodd-he's done!

Based on the amount of scandal-plagued issues that have hounded Dodd for the last few years, I like to use the old saying "Good riddance to bad rubbish." From all his involvement in less-than-above-board dealings, it certainly will be good riddance to Dodd. Unlike figures who are noteworthy and who exit in the prime of their careers, Dodd miserably slinks off at inarguably the lowest point of his career. Therefore, what better way to send Chris Dodd off than to remember him for the unrepentant, battling antagonist he is. I present to you a more-than-two-year-old clip from his last appearance on the O'Reilly Factor when he actually defended that lowlife, slimeball hate-site called the DailyKos. Enjoy!

To send Marc questions, praise or criticism, you can email him at marc_schenker@telus.net.

Sources:

Liz Sidoti, AP sources: Conn. Sen. Chris Dodd to retire, AP

Chris Dodd, Wikipedia

The Secret "Friends of Angelo," WSJ

Chris Cillizza, Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd won't seek reelection, will retire at end of term, Washington Post

Keith B. Richburg, Furor over AIG Bonuses May Affect Dodd, Washington Post

Frank, Senate Polls/Connecticut/Chris Dodd, RightPundits.com

Senator Dodd Versus Bill O'Reilly, YouTube