The “retirement” of Sen. Christopher Dodd reminds me of Enoch Powell’s observation that “all political lives … end in failure, because that is the nature of politics and of human affairs.” Whether or not this is strictly or generally true, it certainly fits the experience of the Dodd family.
Christopher Dodd’s father, Sen. Thomas Dodd, a well-regarded ex-FBI agent and Nuremburg prosecutor, was censured by the Senate for corruption toward the end of his second term, was denied the Democratic nomination for re-election to a third term, ran as an independent, came in third in a three-way race.
Christopher Dodd, the Banking Committee chairman and a five-term Democratic senator in a state with a substantial Democratic majority, has withdrawn from a re-election race he
was destined to lose, and lose badly, amid allegations of personal and official corruption.
The elder Dodd’s seat was won by a Republican; and if the Connecticut GOP can tie the likely Democratic Senate candidate (Attorney General Richard Blumenthal) closely to Christopher Dodd—which should not be difficult—history has an excellent chance of repeating itself.
