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Is this any Way To Treat A …

Facing abysmally low poll ratings, U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd chose to bump himself off, wherefore all the professional politicians who for years thought Dodd was bee’s knee’s breathed a huge collective sigh of relief.

Republicans scratched their heads in dismay when Dedalus announced his availability for Dodd’s seat.

Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, never one to shy from a camera -- having waited what was for him a decent interval before Dodd’s corpse, metaphorically speaking, had been trundled off the stage, a mere two hours – jumped into the race and later made an appearance of Fox News the same day as Dodd’s valedictory.

As usual, Chris Powell at the Journal Inquirer got it right:

"Congressional Democrats couldn't wait 12 hours to let Chris Dodd announce his own retirement from the Senate. They leaked it in the middle of the night as if, after his 35 years of loyal service to the party, they couldn't get him out of the way fast enough or thought he might change his mind.

"And Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal couldn't let Dodd have the spotlight for more than two hours. Instead, as soon as Dodd made his announcement, Blumenthal rushed to face the cameras to announce his own long-simmering candidacy for the Senate -- as if there would have been any serious competition for the Democratic nomination had Blumenthal waited the decent interval of a day or two.

"Dodd will spend his last year in office enacting a fantastically expensive, bureaucratic, and probably unsustainable national medical insurance scheme. But maybe it's the thought that counts; it would be nice if people whose children have cancer didn't have to finance their medical treatment with bake sales while the government writes blank checks for crooked investment banks and imperial wars. History will decide whether the nice thought outweighs crashing the national economy and the world financial system."

Comments

Fuzzy Dunlop said…
Don,
Respectfully, just look at yesterdays headline in the courant... "Blumenthal, At Long Last, Leaving Comfort Zone.".... the first paragraph goes on to call Blumenthal an "untapped" source of political potential, and also goes on to compare him to a minor league baseball player who never took a shot at the big leagues....

If Blumenthal hadn't announced quickly, the coverage would quickly have changed and people would have started to question whether he really had the cojones to run for something other than AG. The headlines would have been something like "Blumenthal keeps political guessing game about his future alive."

When Jodi Rell announced retirement, Michael Fedele nearly tripped over himself running out of his office to hold an impromptu press conference essentially announcing his intention to run for the number one spot (and, lamentably, Jodi Rell's supposed endorsement), but I didn't see similar criticism of him not allowing Jodi some time to bask in the glory of her years of service before moving to succeed her.

Finally, I think even you'll agree that Blumenthal needs to at least be given some credit for not just shopping around for a higher office to run for. Unlike other politicians (ie Tom Foley, and now the various former aspirants for the Governors office considering an AG run come to mind) Blumenthal knew what he wanted, and didn't just jump at the first available political position (ie Governor). Love him or hate him, you have to admire his patience and his commitment to waiting for one office.
Anonymous said…
I think Dick (spitzer) Blumenthal's popularity will not last very long if a good opponent starts to ask key questions about the issues a Senator will have to deal with. No longer does he get to parade in front of the cameras about some dreadful consumer rip off without comment from the dutiful local press.

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