Famous Final Words?
This article in Time Magazine focuses on what might be Christopher Dodd’s last Senate race. According to the article, Sen. Dodd isn’t drawing rave reviews. Most of that started, it claims, with the original TARP bailout:
In the Quinnipiac poll, Dodd’s approval ratings came in at a dismal 41%; that makes him even less popular than Joe Lieberman, the independent junior Senator who left the Democratic Party after losing his primary race and then crossed what was left of his party lines to endorse John McCain for President. “It’s a legitimate question to ask; I’m certainly aware of [the polls],” Dodd says. “But my answer to it is: do your work. And look, that stuff last fall was terribly unpopular, the banking things, the assistance to the automobile institutions. We have never seen mail or e-mails so hostile to those ideas…But it was the right thing to do.”
Sen. Dodd is spinning like a top to avoid the real reason why he’ll face a difficult re-election fight. I think Kevin Rennie’s explanation is more plausible:
It takes considerable political skill for a U.S. senator to win a presidential pardon for a friend without the traditional review by the Justice Department. Sen. Christopher Dodd moved the furtive levers of power in 2001 for Edward R. Downe, convicted of tax and securities fraud eight years before. A man will do a lot for a former real estate partner.
It was reported here two weeks ago that Downe’s real estate development partner, William “Bucky” Kessinger of Kansas City, Mo., purchased a 1,700-square-foot home in Ireland with Dodd in 1994 for $160,000. Downe’s name appeared on the transfer document filed in the Irish Land Registry as the witness to Kessinger’s signature. Kessinger owned two-thirds of the property, Dodd one-third.
The corruption becomes more obvious here:
In 2002, long into a historic Irish property value boom and the year after Dodd got Downe pardoned, Kessinger sold Dodd his share in the lair for only $15,000 more than the $107,000 he’d paid in 1994. Two years after the bubble exploded, homes smaller than Dodd’s and on smaller pieces of property than his are on the market for several times the maximum $250,000 Dodd has declared his is worth each year on his Senate disclosure forms since 2002.
With TARP II becoming a toxic subject in DC, I can’t imagine Sen. Dodd wanting to spend this election explaining his coziness with people who’ve gamed the mortgage system. Nonetheless, that’s what he’d likely do if Larry Kudlow was the GOP’s challenger.
Kudlow would also make Sen. Dodd defend President Obama’s economic plan at a time when President Obama’s plan is losing popularity in proportions equal to the amount the NYSE drops. If the economy isn’t markedly better when 2010 starts, Dodd will face a difficult fight. (Who’d want to defend voting for massive, and ineffective, spending bills and who will have voted for a budget that’s vastly overbloated while fending off corruption charges?)
There’s alot that can happen in the next year but I’m certain that Sen. Dodd could envision a scenario that he’d rather start from.
As for his voting for the original TARP bill, will it be a consolation that “it was the right thing to do” when he’s delivering a concession speech? Will “it was the right thing to do” become his famous final words?
Technorati Tags: Economy, Christopher Dodd, TARP II, Stimulus Bill, Corruption, Countrywide, Friends of Angelo, President Obama, Democrats, Larry Kudlow, Election 2010
Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog