Christopher Dodd

New American, The, Dec 10, 2007 by Gregory A. Hession

Christopher Dodd is a longtime U.S. senator from Connecticut, who has not gained the same household-name recognition as his fellow presidential candidates from the Senate. Dodd's basic belief, set forth on his Senate and presidential websites, is that government can and should solve most business and family problems. His voting record reflects a commitment to increased government spending and regulation, as illustrated by his score of 25 in THE NEW AMERICAN'S "Freedom Index" for the 110th Congress to date.

The 63-year-old Dodd, with a dignified look and well-groomed shock of white hair, has campaigned vigorously for the Democrat presidential nomination. However, he has not caught fire and is at the rear of the pack.

The son of the late U.S. Senator Thomas J. Dodd, Christopher Dodd has worked for the government most of his adult life. After college, he went into the Peace Corps, then the Army Guard and Reserves. In 1974, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from Connecticut where he served three terms, and was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1980 where he remains until today.

Senator Dodd's positions on the issues generally fall into a predictable pro-government pattern, with few exceptions. For example, on the matter of education, he wants universal, mandatory, tax-funded preschool; salary subsidies of $10,000 per teacher; federalized education standards; funds to states for school construction; compulsory school attendance laws to age 18; subsidies for longer school days; subsidized state college tuition; larger college tuition grants; and more. In other words, he wants absolute government control and taxpayer funding, with virtually no freedom or responsibility for parents.

Similarly, his proposal for healthcare is a combination of coercion and taxpayer expropriation, couched in euphemism: "Universal coverage will be achieved through a shared mandate on individuals and businesses: universal coverage through universal responsibility." Translation: you have to do it, and you'll pay us lots of money for it.

His labor plan purports to "protect collective bargaining rights, secure pensions, and fair wages," while stopping "the outsourcing of American jobs." He does not grasp that these are incompatible goals. He also favors other intrusions into the labor market which will insure more job losses and lower living standards for the middle class.

Senator Dodd has championed an initiative called the "Restoring the Constitution Act" to preserve writs of habeas corpus for federal prisoners held under anti-terrorism laws, to prohibit them from being tortured, and to provide legal counsel for them. Though his initiative is commendable, his policies in all other areas are at war with the Constitution. For instance, he has proposed forcing Americans to work for the government. According to the Boston Globe, "He proposes making community service mandatory for all high school students."

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Senator Dodd has voted for some targeted tax relief for certain taxpayers, such as those working from home offices, those buying health insurance, women entrepreneurs, and investors in polluted land. In most cases, the senator has voted to increase taxes and spending.

For example, in the currently pressing matter of high fuel prices, Senator Dodd's solution is to tax oil companies, then offer rebates to consumers. He also wants government to ferret out "price gouging," to regulate auto manufacturers, to use tax dollars for energy research, and to set up vast bureaucracies to do all this. Both fuel costs and taxes will then go up.

Dodd has not always conducted himself with impeccable decorum. In 1985, Dodd and Senator Ted Kennedy were at La Brasserie restaurant in Washington, D.C., apparently with dates. After consuming prodigious quantities of intoxicants, and their dates being in the restroom, the two senators maltreated a waitress. The Hartford Courant newspaper described it thus:

   Dodd and Kennedy were also reported to have made a "human sandwich"
   with a waitress at La Brasserie, another Capitol Hill restaurant.
   The report had it that Kennedy threw the woman on Dodd, who was
   slumped in a chair, and then jumped on top of her. She was said to
   have run screaming from the room.

Now married and with two small children, one assumes that those days are behind him. Senator Dodd is hovering at around 1 percent in the national polls, so his prospects for the Democrat Party nomination appear bleak.

Christopher Dodd's greatest claim is that he will restore the part of the Constitution guaranteeing habeas corpus (the right to trial) that President Bush ignores.