Thank you, Chris Dodd

Chris Dodd, my senator, one of the few really good representatives left in the mess that is the US Senate, is retiring. I know a lot of people are happy about this, because replacement candidate AG Richard Blumenthal is polling about 30 points better than Dodd was, so this means the seat is safe for Democrats. But I can't be anything other than disappointed, because it comes at the cost of having Chris Dodd in the senate.

Everyone has been hammering Dodd for the past year or two, because he was on the senate Banking Committee when the global financial system hit the fan, and because he got a mortgage. Some have slammed him for owning a cottage in Ireland, where his family hails from. Many have slammed him for his 2008 Presidential campaign, as if campaigning in the Iowa caucus showed disloyalty to Connecticut. Somehow that didn't hurt Joe Lieberman in 2006, but IOKIYAR.

I still believe that Dodd would have won reelection. Even in the polls where he trailed Rob Simmons, Simmons was still only getting around 40%. Anger towards Dodd for stupid shit like having a cottage, or having a mortgage, or the deep betrayal of campaigning for president in another state, would only have decreased as time passed. In the end, Democrats would have come home, and Dodd would have won a close one.

But Dodd didn't want to have that fight. He didn't want to spend resources that can now go to other competitive races, he didn't want to be a potential drain on other Democrats running in the state, and he didn't want to run the risk of losing the seat to the Republicans. And, after three decades in the Senate, he didn't want to have to spend a year fighting for his political life. And in my opinion, after the service he did not only for Connecticut but for the country during those three decades, that's his right to make that decision. If he wants to take some time to relax and watch his girls grow up rather than fighting and clawing for votes, I can't complain. He gave me thirty years.

Chris Dodd has been my senator since I was two years old. For as long as I've understood what that meant, I've been proud to have him as my senator. I don't know what Richard Blumenthal will be like in the senate. There may be times in the next six years, when Blumenthal makes some dumb mistake, or caves on an important issue, that I curse the day Chris Dodd gave up his senate seat, and curse Chris Dodd for not fighting it out. Maybe that day will never come, because Blumenthal turns out to be better than anyone can imagine. But either way, I wanted to take this moment to say, Thank You, Chris Dodd. Thank you for your service, thank you for fighting to improve this country. Even when nearly every Republican and even most Democrats fought against your efforts, it was still heartening to see someone making the fight. I'll miss that.