Chris Dodd for President

Senator Dodd will appear on Fox News' O'Reilly Factor tomorrow, August 1st, in advance of attending the YearlyKos convention in Chicago to personally respond to O'Reilly's attacks on the progressive blogosphere. As Greg Sargent of TPM Café writes, Dodd will be "the first Presidential candidate to personally appear on a leading right-wing show for the explicit purpose of defending the liberal blogosphere." Last week, Dodd's campaign was quick to point out the hypocrisy in O'Reilly's attack on DailyKos for the objectionable language used by a handful of commenters on the site. Communications Director Hari Sevugan said:

The Daily Kos community is populated by a diverse cross-section of the American public -- patriotic citizens participating in political debate. And as with every political debate there will be a wide range of ideas, many of which we do not agree with. But to selectively choose the handful of the most extreme comments from the millions of voices in the conversation and fashion that as representative of a whole community is patently unfair. You would think that Mr. O'Reilly would understand that it is wrong to pass judgment based on a few comments taken out of context. ... Senator Dodd is proud to participate in the Yearly Kos conference and engage in a free exchange of ideas with this important community. Senator Dodd himself is member of the community, having participated in a vigorous exchange of bold ideas prior to the New Hampshire debate in June. At a time when the stakes could not be greater for the nation, we should applaud civic participation, not try to demonize it.

The O'Reilly Factor airs at 8:00 p.m. EDT on Fox News.