powered by ODEO Here's a link to another interview that Senator Dodd did while at Yearly Kos. On Saturday afternoon, Dodd spoke with MyDD's Jonathan Singer. Dodd and Singer spoke about the part of the Yearly Kos forum that focused on lobbyist money and public financing. As in the Forum, Senator Dodd spoke out passionately in favor of public financing.
Singer: You got to take a little umbrage, though, also. Chris Dodd - not a latecomer to publicly financed elections. What was your reaction (to Barack Obama approving of your support for public financing, and Obama and John Edwards not accepting donations from lobbyists)? Dodd: I found the argument almost insulting to the audience. I'm not a Washington lobbyist? Please. So you're getting money from trial lawyers, and you're getting money from Chicago, Los Angeles... People, this "Washington lobbyists" is a nice bumper sticker, but don't insult the intelligence of people out here. Tell me how you're voting and what you're doing. The fact that you took a contribution from someone is interesting. Or maybe not interesting. But when you vote for the Bankruptcy Act, you may not have taken a contribution from a banker, but the fact is you voted wrong on something that's critical and setting back an awful lot of people in this country. As someone who has been an advocate for a long time of public financing, people sort of competing with each other as to how many lobbyist checks they won't receive in all of this misses the point, it seems to me, in many ways. And, again, it's to some degree because saying "Washington lobbyist", as if a lobbyist from every other place around the country is okay and they're the only ones who are wrong is trite and superficial.
