Chris Dodd for President

Last night Senator Dodd referenced Bill O'Reilly's statement from 2005 to the effective of it being OK with O'Reilly if Al Qaeda wanted to attack San Francisco. O'Reilly denied it and accused Senator Dodd of reading his transcripts on Media Matters. Warning, the transcript that follows includes some profanity on O'Reilly's part. Here's how it went down:

DODD: Talking about Al Qaeda attacking San Francisco, blowing up San Francisco. That’s not offensive? O'REILLY: When did I say that, senator? DODD: You said it in 2005, I think is correct. O'REILLY: What forum? When? DODD: Right here I believe on your show. O'REILLY: You are wrong. I didn't say it here. You don't know what the hell I said with all due respect. You got it from Media Matters. You didn't hear it and you don't know.

Since Mr. O'Reilly specifically mentions Media Matters, I think it's worth while to see what the Fox News transcripts Media Matters says Bill O'Reilly said on November 8, 2005 on The Radio Factor with Bill O'Reilly:

O'REILLY: Hey, you know, if you want to ban military recruiting, fine, but I'm not going to give you another nickel of federal money. You know, if I'm the president of the United States, I walk right into Union Square, I set up my little presidential podium, and I say, "Listen, citizens of San Francisco, if you vote against military recruiting, you're not going to get another nickel in federal funds. Fine. You want to be your own country? Go right ahead."

I've spent a lot of time walking the halls of the Yearly Kos Convention the last twenty-four hours. Everywhere I go, I'm seeing people gathered around a laptop, watching Chris Dodd take on Bill O'Reilly. One blogger, David Alpert, described it to a friend after hearing the audio: "Dodd demolished O'Reilly." Here's what other bloggers are saying today: John Aravosis of AmericaBlog:

You really have to watch this video. It's wonderful. Senator Dodd (D-CT), who is running for president, goes on O'Reilly to talk about DailyKos and O'Reilly's own hate speech. Dodd was simply amazing. I really like the guy. Always have. Like him even more now.

Jonathan Singer of MyDD:

This is some really great stuff. Dodd goes directly at O'Reilly in a way that few have been able to in a long time, not only strenuously defending the netroots from O'Reilly's scurrilous attacks but also going after O'Reilly for his own extremist language (for instance, Dodd brings up O'Reilly's comments from 2005 about Al Qaeda bombing San Francisco). You can hear O'Reilly get really frustrated in the clip -- particularly when he scolds Dodd for not being enough like his fellow Connecticut Senator, Joe Lieberman -- which is a testament to the solid job Dodd did during the interview. So go and reward the good behavior over at Dodd's website, where he is hosting a petition supporting the netroots and standing up to O'Reilly.

John Amato of Crooks and Liars:

Hundreds of members of the Daily Kos community have taken the time to weigh in on Senator Dodd's appearance on Bill O'Reily's show to defend the netroots and stand up to O'Reilly (transcript of the appearance is here). It's hard to whittle down the outpouring of support to a few comments, but here's a shot. And just because O'Reilly is the subject matter, I'll throw up the disclaimer that though Daily Kos gets thousands upon thousands of comments every day and this is a small selection from them, this is a good snapshot of what the Kos community thinks about Dodd standing up to O'Reilly. super simian:

Thanks so much for sticking up for Daily Kos! You did an excellent job of hammering home the main point that Billo's beef with Daily Kos is about ideology and it is completely dishonest and hypocritical to pretend that it's about anything else.

This is what it looks like when a Democratic Presidential candidate and sitting U.S. Senator goes on Fox News to defend the leading progressive blog and blogger conference against smear attacks. Dodd stood up to O'Reilly. He pushed back on O'Reilly's bullying and threw facts back at him (you know, those facts from Media Matters that O'Reilly hates). He stood up for the netroots. I can't tell you how proud I am to work for Chris Dodd. Transcript here If you liked what you saw, add your name to the list of people who are proud to stand with Senator Dodd in support of the netroots.

DailyKos commenter Horsefeathers answers Bill O'Reilly's question: "What are ya gonna do with a guy like Dodd?"

Well, BillO, I'm going to start by CHEERING him, then I think I'm going to send him a contribution, then I think I may throw some rose petals in his general direction. That'll teach him.

This is just one of the many, many comments praising Dodd's appearance on O'Reilly's show. I'll pull out more tonight and tomorrow, but I thought this one was just so poignant a response to O'Reilly that it merited being shared now. You can show your support and contribute to Chris Dodd's presidential campaign here.