Like an oasis in the desert
By Carol Gee
It was an amazing thing to watch, this strange thing called "leadership." But there it was, this cool guy from Connecticut, his face getting red, saying "No, not this time!" He was saying it on the floor of the Senate In Washington.
And a few of his friends stood up for him -- Senators Kennedy, Wyden, Nelson and Feingold, particularly, but generally he was on his own.
The opposing Republican Senators he faced yesterday got really red in the face, too. Their arguments for the bill were absurd distortions of the issues, avoidance of the truth about the illegality of the actual warrantless wiretap program, etc. The most absurd was the one accusing us "conspiracy theorists" of being fear mongers, trying to make people fear their own government, of all things. Talk about pot and kettle!
His compatriots were in Iowa, gathering next year's votes. Senator Dodd managed to gather some votes that truly mattered to our country's future today. Our public pressure appeared to aid this courageous man in one of the biggest fights of his career, because Senator Reid pulled the bill from the floor until next year.
If it had not been for this one man who exercised leadership at a critical moment, I might be writing a lament tonight. But I am relieved. I am no longer undecided. You have my vote, Senator Dodd, whether you have the required "electability quotient" or not.
Bravo. You are like a cool drink of water in the desert to us.
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It was an amazing thing to watch, this strange thing called "leadership." But there it was, this cool guy from Connecticut, his face getting red, saying "No, not this time!" He was saying it on the floor of the Senate In Washington.And a few of his friends stood up for him -- Senators Kennedy, Wyden, Nelson and Feingold, particularly, but generally he was on his own.
The opposing Republican Senators he faced yesterday got really red in the face, too. Their arguments for the bill were absurd distortions of the issues, avoidance of the truth about the illegality of the actual warrantless wiretap program, etc. The most absurd was the one accusing us "conspiracy theorists" of being fear mongers, trying to make people fear their own government, of all things. Talk about pot and kettle!
His compatriots were in Iowa, gathering next year's votes. Senator Dodd managed to gather some votes that truly mattered to our country's future today. Our public pressure appeared to aid this courageous man in one of the biggest fights of his career, because Senator Reid pulled the bill from the floor until next year.
If it had not been for this one man who exercised leadership at a critical moment, I might be writing a lament tonight. But I am relieved. I am no longer undecided. You have my vote, Senator Dodd, whether you have the required "electability quotient" or not.
Bravo. You are like a cool drink of water in the desert to us.
(Cross-posted at South by Southwest.)
Labels: 2008 election, activism, Bush Legacy, Chris Dodd, civil liberties, Congress, FISA, rule of law
posted by Carol Gee at
6:40 AM
5 Comments:
It is a pity his candidacy has not gotten more traction, and I am very much in agreement with you, Carol. We conduct our elections as if they were a high school popularity contest without forethought as to who is truly qualified and demonstrates more integrity. Later we pay a price for this juvenile behavior.
By
Swampcracker, at 8:24 AM
Actually, I left this comment yesterday (four posts down):
Does anyone here think that maybe Chris Dodd has been under-rated, receiving of too little attention? He has taken lead positions on issues like FISA, torture, and illegal surveillance when other candidates were out to lunch.
By
Swampcracker, at 8:28 AM
To answer your question, yes, Dodd has been underrated, mostly by people in the mainstream media. You are right, the horse race takes over and content of the candidates gets lost.
One of the interesting things to watch will be to see what kind of positive election fall-out Dodd gets from his firm stance.
BTW, I am convinced he was acting in his Senator role here, not in a contrived way like a typical candidate would. Am I naive?
By
Carol Gee, at 9:09 AM
Yes, absolutely, he has been, and still is being, underrated. A lot of it, I suspect, has to do with the fact that he has, to some extent, come out of nowhere to take on this leadership role. I admit to not knowing a great deal about him prior to this campaign, he never struck me as the likely voice for progressive values that he has become. He has become the Feingold candidate.
I would hesitate to label him as strictly a "progressive" voice. In a sense, he has taken on the role of the anti-establishment candidate, the candidate willing most aggressively and determinedly to stand up not just to Bush and the GOP, which the other Democratic candidates are doing, too, more or less, but to the Democratic establishment in Congress, the one that has repeatedly kowtowed to Bush and the Republicans, even since the 2006 elections. I would add that Edwards has been fighting the same fight. Dodd's advantage is that he can fight on the Senate floor. While Edwards, who still thinks he has a shot at the nomination, is fighting in Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina, Dodd, who knows that he has no shot at the nomination, is fighting on the national stage. While there is a certain banality to the campaign trail, the national stage is where the real drama occurs.
It is a shame, perhaps, that this is how it works. The field was set long ago, the media having settled on a few key stories and a few top candidates. On the Democratic side it was Clinton, Obama, and Edwards (and Gore, had he gotten in). The Huckabee and Paul phenomena show that it is possible to come out of nowhere to make a mark, but I think that had a lot to do with the fact that the leading Republican candidates are so deeply flawed. On our side, the top three candidates have all done fairly well, leaving no room for someone like Dodd to make a leap.
Regardless, I think Dodd has endeared himself to many of us. He may not win this time, but, going forward, he will be, if he keeps this up, a powerful and influential voice not just for liberal and progressive but for genuinely American values.
By
Michael J.W. Stickings, at 9:43 AM
he never struck me as the likely voice for progressive values that he has become
In some respects, this is part of his attraction. He is quiet and unassuming, does not engage in grandstanding or chest-thumping. In other words, no visible character flaws like the extreme "in-your-face" narcissism of the Bush/Cheney junta.
In my opinin, he is the most likely candidate to inspire a return to compromise and consensus while remaining true to progressive values. Nor is he a naive a sap.
By
Swampcracker, at 10:27 AM
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