I’ve been watching Senate and House committee hearings since 2002 on www.c-span.com (gosh that’s long). This is where I was first introduced to US Senators and Reps, and where I first started thinking about who might earn my vote in the next election.
Among my favorite senators to watch were Chris Dodd and Joe Biden–there are others; these just happened to be the only two I’ve liked and are running, and they just happened to be democrat.
As of last week, these were my top 2 choices. I preferred Biden, but would’ve happily gone w/ Dodd if the election came down to him. However, this changed when I watched Dodd’s interview w/ Bill O’Reilly on August 2nd. Let me state for the record, I don’t ordinarily watch his show, and I’m not a fan, though I do find what happens on his show interesting sometimes. Watch here:
Note that O’Reilly asks an honest question: Does Sen. Dodd condone the kind of Bush mockery, etc., found on the Daily Kos? Shouldn’t he distance himself from it?
To be fair to Dodd, O’Reilly was clearly looking to back Dodd into a corner. It looked like a simple question, but (a) Dodd was to speak at a convention hosted by the Daily Kos in a few days, and (b) O’Reilly’s ensuing remarks showed that he thought Dodd surely must’ve condoned that behavior. That “simple” question was engineered to make Dodd look bad.
But the question was fair. But Dodd reacted rather strangely. And Dodd could’ve answered it fairly. But instead, immediately after the question was posed, Dodd begins to rudely bark back at Dodd, skirt the question, and accuse accuse O’Reilly of having a completely different agenda: simply attacking the website’s right to free speech. Not only did he not need to yell, but Dodd was way off topic. Doubtless O’Reilly doesn’t approve of the site, but clearly that wasn’t what he had in mind. Why would Dodd done this?
I’d like to think I “know” Chris Dodd from having watched him for years now. Maybe I really don’t (maybe I just bought him public image). But I strongly suspect under ordinary circumstances he’d never do this. I don’t think he’s this kind of person. He would have been honest and direct. He would have said he supports the right to free speech on websites, and that’s why he’s speaking, not because he condones everything the website does. And though I don’t think he’s remotely a Bush fan, I honestly think deep down the kind of material on that site bothers him. Dodd is mild, temperate, measured, with good judgment. That’s why I like him; it’s why I like Biden and don’t like Clinton.
O’Reilly made another observation after the interview. Immediately after that interview, www.christdodd.com posted a link to a snippet of the interview, with the line “Stand up to Bill O’Reilly and his attack on the netroots.” It certainly seems that the whole thing was a calculated stunt: Dodd intentionally went nuts on O’Reilly just so he could get the clip, so he could be seen as anti-republican, so he could appeal O’Reilly-haters (there are many, esp. in NYC here), and so he could get more votes and money. This explains a lot. This is certainly bothersome, but it’s even more so if Dodd did not stay true to himself. It makes me think I misjudged Dodd–though I still consider him incomparably more qualified Clinton or Obama.
And for what it’s worth, if I ever see Biden do likewise, I will quickly reconsider my vote.
Posted by JD
