Where We Live: Chris Dodd, The Proud Partisan

For 30 years in the Senate, Chris Dodd has been occasionally diplomatic, sometimes combative, but always colorful.  He has a voice you don’t forget once you’ve heard it, and he’s used that voice to argue for issues he feels passionately about.  In fact, at a time when “partisan” behavior is under attack, he calls himself a “proud Democrat” – who thinks that being partisan is the only way to forge real political compromise.

 

Nearly one year ago, Dodd announced that he would be leaving the Senate, in the midst of a series of controversies that had damaged his electability.  Since that time, he served as President Obama’s point man on two key reforms – health care and banking reform.

 

We spoke with him on Monday, during a visit to New Haven.  It was just hours before a judge’s ruling on the constitutionality of a piece of the health reform bill.  But it was also just as the group “No Labels” – headed by former Democratic Senator Joe Lieberman – was rolling out it’s “bi-partisan agenda” in New York.