Dodd's Farewell to the Senate of Old

By Suzy Khimm

Sen. Chris Dodd’s departure isn’t just the final chapter of an embattled Washington career—it also hastens the twilight of a political era. Having followed his father’s footsteps to the Senate three decades ago, Dodd quickly fell in with Washington’s old guard when he first came to Congress. But, in his best of moments, the senator from Connecticut also transformed himself into an unapologetically liberal firebrand who was able to pull off bipartisan, backroom dealmaking without forsaking his progressive principles. As Mark Schmitt remembers:

"In the hours before the giant welfare reform bill passed in 1996, I found Dodd huddled in a corner off the Senate floor cajoling Orrin Hatch (successfully) to agree to more funding for child care … In those moments, he was very much in the Ted Kennedy mold. At some moments, he was even more effective than Kennedy just because he was less of a symbolic, divisive, Olympian figure."

The same progressive pragmatism also motivated some of Dodd’s biggest legislative triumphs, including the Family and Medical Leave Act and his more recent credit-card and bankruptcy reforms.

But politicking “in the Ted Kennedy mold” has become increasingly antiquated as the Congress has gotten more rancorously partisan. Senator Hatch, for one, had been a great friend of Kennedy’s and vowed to help pass health-care reform at the beginning of this year. But by the end of the summer, when Kennedy had passed away, Hatch—like nearly every other Republican—had abandoned the bipartisan talks to turn against the entire bill. Though Dodd tried to take up Kennedy’s mantle in the reform debate, neither he nor the other Senate Democrats were ultimately able to cajole any of the opposition into cooperating, while liberals accused them of compromising their ideals. 

And ultimately, rather than reaping the benefits of his stature and insider status, Dodd became a victim of his own proximity to the establishment, as I detailed in a profile last year. His close ties to the financial industry and leadership of the Banking Committee made him a convenient punching bag when the economy began to collapse. And the clubby, privileged culture of Washington with which Dodd was so closely aligned made him especially vulnerable to the ethical allegations that have plagued him for the past year.

Though he tried to revive his progressivism, Dodd was never able to shake the negative attacks, trailing by double digits in the polls back home. And in recent weeks, perhaps presaging his departure, Dodd began to express his own disillusionment about the current political culture and workings of the Senate. Just a day before the chamber’s Christmas Eve vote on the health-care bill, Dodd lashed out against the Senate’s newest members for their lack of comity: "In a floor speech Wednesday night," wrote the newspaper The Hill, "Dodd said there is 'nothing wrong' with partisanship, but added he has 'been deeply disturbed by some of the [healthcare] debate I have heard, usually from newer members … who do not have an appreciation of what this chamber means and how we work together.'"

As both parties have become increasingly polarized, that old Senate culture has seemed more and more like a historical relic. Even if he hung on to his seat, Dodd would still have to contend with that reality. And, in his decision to depart, perhaps he recognized that much.