Chris Dodd for President

Bob Geiger is probably the blogosphere's foremost expert on the Senate, covering proceedings in great depth since he started blogging in 2005. Today, Geiger endorsed Chris Dodd for President in an in-depth column on Huffington Post. I'm going to quote liberally from it, but highly recommend you go read the whole piece, as it's one of the most comprehensive arguments for Chris Dodd I've seen in any one place.

On Iraq:

Perhaps it's a dismal sign of how unaccustomed we've become to presidential-like leadership that we don't recognize it when it slaps us in the face, but his firm stance on Iraq and many other reasons make it obvious to me that Chris Dodd should be the Democratic presidential nominee in 2008.

In addition to saying unequivocally that he will get our troops out of Iraq when he assumes the role of Commander-in-Chief, Dodd has voted for troop withdrawals at every opportunity since Democrats took control of Congress in January and has been a leader in all efforts to end the Iraq quagmire.

On the Constitution:

But Dodd has been at his best most recently in showing immense leadership and the truest understanding of our nation's meaning in standing strong against attempts by the Bush administration to let telecommunications companies off the hook for aiding and abetting the White House in their illegal domestic spying on American citizens. Despite little support from his Senate colleagues and eerie initial silence from his fellow presidential candidates, Dodd came out and said last week that he would place a Senatorial "hold" on any bill granting immunity to companies that have assisted George W. Bush in spying on Americans without required warrants and announced that he would filibuster any such legislation to keep it from passing.

On America's middle-class families:

On domestic issues, Dodd has been on the front lines with Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA) in leading the fight for a minimum wage increase, full funding of the Head Start program and in making college more affordable for middle-class and low-income families. What many voters also don't know is that, despite its passage being attributed to newly-elected Bill Clinton in 1993, the Family and Medical Leave Act -- one of the most popular and substantial pieces of social legislation in decades -- was written by Dodd and promoted by him long before it was finally passed.

On honoring our veterans:

While the whole country was aghast this year at the discovery of inhumane conditions encountered by returning troops at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, it was Dodd who a full year before proposed a measure that, had it not been defeated by the Republican majority, would have provided additional funding to shore up the failing infrastructures at Veterans hospitals all over the country, including Walter Reed.

Geiger closes with this powerful endorsement:

We've lived with George W. Bush for many terrible years and America is in very perilous times as a nation, both in national security terms and in the degree of damage being done daily to our heritage, creed and reputation in the world. It is insane for we as voters to do anything but look at presidential candidates very carefully and see how they stack up when viewed through that prism and how their deeds match their words.

Nobody should base a presidential vote on who the media is telling them will be elected; we should each make our choice based on who we believe should be elected.

And Senator Chris Dodd has earned my vote.

Thanks for your support Bob! I highly recommend everyone read his full post, which goes into far greater detail on these issues and others.

Bob Geiger has a long write-up of a meeting he and a number of other bloggers had with Senator Dodd on Saturday after the Yearly Kos Presidential Forum. Geiger touches on a number of the topics under discussion in the meeting, including Dodd's strong push-back on Bill O'Reilly, damage to the rule of law and civil liberties under the Military Commissions Act and FISA, political strategy around ending the Iraq war, the strategic considerations of impeachment, and the state of the presidential race. I want to draw out this particular passage on fighting to end the Iraq war with principle and conviction:

"I think we walked off the Defense Department Authorization bill too quickly. I think we should have stayed right with that. Not that these other issues aren't important… The ethics stuff is important and the SCHIP for the kids is important -- I don’t want to minimize the importance of those things, but nothing is more important than the Iraq war. You've got to stick with it." When Pachacutec of Firedoglake emphasized the need for Senate Democrats to get stronger spines and "even if you lose, pick a fight," Dodd immediately agreed. "I think it's much more valuable to get 20 votes for something that means something than when you try to get 51 votes," Dodd said.

Dodd made clear that he's the candidate with the conviction to lead the fight to end the Iraq war. Conviction means not bowing to political expediency, but standing up for your beliefs and demanding that Congress do what is right. Senator Dodd understands that the bold position isn't always going to be able to muster a slim majority, let alone the super majority needed to get past Republican filibusters.

Blogger and Senate expert Bob Geiger has some thoughts on the last few days events.

But although they cast the same vote yesterday, the stature engendered by these three candidates could not possibly be more different. On the one hand, you have Dodd, who came out strongly against this bogus compromise early in the week -- as he has dependably done on a host of other important issues -- and who said loud enough for the world to hear that he objected to caving in to Bush, failing our troops and breaking faith with the American people. In other words, Chris Dodd behaved like a leader. And, while many will probably say that Senators Clinton and Obama opposing the non-compromise was a product of political calculation -- their campaigns would have been dealt a harsh blow had they gone along with it -- I give both of them credit for voting their conscience and beliefs. Here's my problem: Neither of them showed me, as a voter, what it will take to get my support when the New York primary happens next year. The Iraq war is the defining issue in our nation right now, and the response from people who want to be the next president seems an entirely reasonable litmus test by which to measure the degree of support they deserve. Dodd's response was to show leadership before the vote and urge Senate colleagues to follow his lead in stopping the madness of King George.

Read the rest of Geiger's piece -- it's a clear call for leadership in America. Some candidates are leading and others are not. I'm glad Geiger likes Dodd's bold leadership -- expect more to come!