Over at My Left Nutmeg the Working Families Party is gunning to get Senator Chris Dodd to do the right thing and push for a vote on Elizabeth Warren for the new consumer protection agency (CPA):

A cloture vote to end debate is on the schedule for Wednesday so barring any obstructionist tactics from any of the typical filiblusterers (not likely given the financial environment of chaos that still exists and Americans of all political stripes wanting this fixed) the law MIGHT be signed by President Obama as early as July 4th:

When you consider the polarization of politics across the nation, Connecticut AG Richard Blumenthal's numbers both in favorabilities and versus any of the candidates in the #GOPsmackdown primary have to be considered ridiculously good across the board:

Blumenthal heavily favored

When Chris Dodd retired last night his seat went from one of the most
vulnerable to one of the safest for Senate Democrats. Attorney General
Richard Blumenthal leads all three of the Republicans in the race by at
least 30 points in polling we conducted Monday and Tuesday night before
Dodd's announcement.

Blumenthal
is unusually popular, especially in hyper partisan times when voters
like few politicians. 59% have a favorable opinion of him to just 19%
who see him negatively. It's no surprise that he's liked by 71% of
Democrats and 60% of independents, but even Republicans view him
favorably by a 37/35 margin. It doesn't take a lot of hands to count
the number of Democratic politicians with positive numbers among GOP
voters these days.

Blumenthal leads Rob Simmons 59-28, Linda
McMahon 60-28, and Peter Schiff 63-23. It would take an epic collapse
for him not to be Connecticut's next Senator.

Calling Blumenthal heavily favored is an understatement.

Regardless of his low favorabilities, if you look at Sen. Dodd's numbers versus the GOP primary candidates polled, he barely loses to Simmons and it is probably within the margin of error since it is only a 4 point gap, ties McMahon and beats Schiff. Any guesses as to whether or not Senator Dodd had acess to these numbers before making his decision last night?

CT-05 Rep. Chris Murphy beats all 3 candidates but his numbers are lower than Blumenthal's, while President Barack Obama and healthcare reform also performed well in this Connecticut poll. Peter Schiff may as well drop out of the race now as all 3 polled Democratic candidates would likely beat him with even Dodd having a 7 point lead against him.

Some of the numbers below the fold.

Maybe? Dorgan First:

ND-Sen: Byron Dorgan Announces His Retirement

Democratic hopes may well rest on the leader of their very thin
bench in North Dakota: Congressman Earl Pomeroy. But Pomeroy has been
relatively secure in the House, whereas a Senate bid would certainly
prove to be a greater challenge. There would likely be no small amount
of reluctance on his part to give up a reasonably secure seat and two
decades of seniority to start a career in the Senate at the age of 57.

Dorgan's statement to the press read, in part, as follows:

“It has been a special privilege to serve with Senator Conrad and
Congressman Pomeroy, who do an outstanding job for our state. And
although he inherited an economy in serious trouble, I remain confident
that President Obama is making the right decisions to put our country
back on track.

Further, my decision has no relationship to the prospect of a
difficult election contest this year. Frankly, I think if I had decided
to run for another term in the Senate I would be reelected.

But I feel that after serving 30 years, I want to make time for some
other priorities. And making a commitment to serve in the Senate for
the next seven years does not seem like the right decision for me.

So, 2010 will be my last year in the Senate.

Dorgan has been in public life since his mid-twenties, when he
became North Dakota's Tax Commissioner. From there, he served a dozen
years in the House before being elected to the US Senate. He coasted
through easy re-elections in both 1998 and 2004.

And maybe Dodd:

From The Hill, Brown calling their bluff:

Sens. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) and David Vitter (R-La.) are preparing an amendment to force members of Congress into any public option health plan that becomes law, frustrating at least one Senate Democrat who wants to join the effort.

From the Senate floor, Sen. Dodd tells you what he, Sen. Sherod Brown and Sen. Barbara Mikulski think about it:

At the end of the blogger outreach on Saturday, September 26th, '09, I talked to Senator Dodd on the Kucinich Amendment Protecting States' Rights to move forward on Single Payer. Essentially, Dodd refers to Senator Bernie Sanders' efforts and Sanders legislation to deal with Erisa laws and allow Single Payer in States that want to start an SP system. Dodd makes no commitment to support it, but he will look at it. Sanders had previously introduced a partial fix to the system and it was rejected in the Senate HELP committee BUT if we can get him to reintroduce it, or even a stronger fix? One possibly more sympathetic and newly minted Chairperson may have the will to twist a few arms:

ctblogger uploaded this video and I thought I would yank it from him because it shows a lot slicker version of the material I covered:

Pay no attention the Blogging geek asking the question nor the mug of Sam Adam's Octoberfest beer on the counter behind him.

In this video, taken on Saturday, September 26th, '09, Senator Chris Dodd makes sense on the situation in Afghanistan. It starts with Nutmegger John Kantrowitz, from My Left Nutmeg and the Conn-Post Blogs, discussing the shades of Vietnam parallels. But there is an 800 pound guerrilla that too many ignore that I try to point out at the end of the video:

Just so you understand what I am talking about at the end of the video, General Petraeus re-wrote the doctrine for dealing with counterinsurgencies:

The first chapter of Petraeus's manual calls for a "force ratio" of 25 counterinsurgents (here meaning US, allied, and Iraqi soldiers and police) per 1,000 residents. In Baghdad that would require a total force of 120,000. But even with the additional 17,500 US troops President Bush has called for, and a reallocation of Iraqi troops from the North to Baghdad, the total force will be approximately 80,000, a full third less than what the manual prescribes.

I was shooting from the hip and based on my faulty memory, but the numbers I was talking about were sufficiently close to make the point. Thinking in terms of the situation in Afghanistan a quick look at the math tells you what you need to know.

The population of Afghanistan is 28,150,000 according to wikipedia - And the math based on 25 soldiers per thousand residents?

703,750

By Genral Petraeus' own standard that is how many soldiers would be needed to effectively stabelize Afghanistan.

I have a tonne of video to sift through. This is the very first one that I am done editing, most of them are pretty long and there will be more from Dodd as well as some from Ned Lamont and Rosa Delauro.

Stay tuned... These events all took place on Saturday, September 26, '09.

Both Rachel Maddow and KO on Countdown picked up this video of mine and I caught it late last night after others pointed it out to me. The video of some seriously insane Dodd bashers was also picked up at some of the bigger Blogs around the net, yesterday. Some material that I xposted from ePluribus Media to dKos, yesterday, and reposted today to get a few more eyeballs on it.

Josh Marshal points to a post at TPM DC where they picked up the Dodd suicide video, as did The Political Carnival where GottaLaff was nice enough to link back here when she found out I did the video. Also, it was put up early yesterday morning by tparty at MLN when I pointed it out to them. Thanks kindly for picking it up. Via avahome, AMERICAblog picked it up too. I guess it is going a bit viral now? Well? "Dump Dodd" was complaing that they didn't get any exposure from the event... You are welcome! snickers. More Below The fold...

An exclusive interview with Senator Dodd on healthcare, single payer, the public option and a bit about Senator Jeff Merkley's recent statements. Sorry if it is just a wee bit shaky... I am just an amateur. Thanks to the Connecticut State Democratic Party for sneaking me into this event.

I still have a bit over an hour of video from the meeting in Hartford that I wrote about earlier to edit and process.

Via the Hartford Courant:

U.S. Senator Christopher Dodd has been diagnosed with early-stage prostate cancer. Dodd is scheduled to undergo surgery during the Senate's August recess and said he expects to be back at work after a "brief recuperation" at home. "It's something that's very common among men my age,'' said Dodd, who is 65 and the father of two young daughters. "In fact, one in six men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer at some point during their life.'' Dodd, a Democrat who is up for re-election in November 2010, said he feels fine. "As you have probably noticed, I'm working some long and hard hours lately,'' he said. "And that will continue."

I am certain that everyone wishes him the best in his treatment and hopes for a speedy recovery. We need his voice to help fight for changes in health insurance and healthcare so that every American can have a chance to receive the kind of treatment he will receive. Via tparty, An email from Sen. Dodd to supporters below the fold.

More specifically, he wants to know your likes and dislikes in the admittedly dysfunctional American Healthcare system:

I am thinking that this is another opportunity to drive home the message of support for Single Payer!

Have at it right over here:

Senator Dodd asks: Is your health care working? What changes would you like to see? Add your ideas at YouTube's Senate Hub at http://youtube.com/senatehub

Democratic Senators are writing a major health reform bill. Rising costs are hitting families and businesses and now 46 million Americans live without health coverage. We need reform. Respond now with your ideas as the Senate writes health care legislation. You can help.

What are you still doing here?

It appears kicking in their doors, faxing them out of paper and ringing their phones off of the hook is helping single payer as nyceve was invited to go to Washington. I am hoping that means the CNA, NNM and PNHP might all get their opportunities, as well:

I was asked to come to Washington and I need your help 

by nyceve

Thu Jun 04, 2009 at 12:24:38 PM EDT

If you haven't seen that diary yet?

And if you hadn't noticed that last diary at dKos by the National Nurses Movement on their meeting with Baucus: Sanders told them that Dodd might be interested in having a committee meeting looking at Single Payer in comparison to the other proposals. Baucus was iffy on it.

He agreed to use the power of his office to have charges dropped against the Baucus 13, nurses, doctors, and activists arrested for raising their voices in the committee hearings.

Call, fax, email Dodd and ask him to do this. Here is the phone number: Tel: (202) 224-2823

Originally posted 2009-05-18 09:40:36 -0500, bumped by carol

Yet again, protesters turn out to demand single payer at another forum on healthcare:

A “town hall discussion” on health care reform held at Griffin Hospital Saturday became contentious when advocates of a single-payer health insurance system shouted at U.S. Sen. Christopher Dodd to put the plan back “on the table.”

A group of Yale School of Medicine students also challenged Dodd and U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-3, on the issue, but they didn’t repeatedly shout their questions without being called upon. And so, unlike the earlier advocates, they were not taken out of the building by security guards.

At least 200 people jammed the hospital cafeteria for the session, which gave the public a chance to ask questions of not just Dodd and DeLauro, but also Nancy-Ann DeParle, director of the White House Office of Health Reform.