Chris Dodd is Retiring

Chris Dodd is retiring. It's about time. And it will only be better if some of his colleagues follow him out the door.

Arrogant. Corrupt. Oblivious. Quite the legacy.

Lousiana with Foliage

Rampant corruption in Connecticut has gotten the attention of media across the nation, most recently the Boston Globe. 

My concern, though, is that the headlines also provide cover for numerous small acts that will never see the light of day, but which are costly and erode trust.

Taxes? Not for me.

Let's stop the hatin' and start the learnin'.

Daschle, Killefer and the other sainted tainted Obama nominees clearly know something we don't know. There are no downsides to tax evasion. The only mistake they made was agreeing to work for the President. So, knowing that there is no chance I'll be asked to submit my name to Congress for a cabinet-level job, I'm going to learn from the masters: no more taxes for me. Taxes are for the little guy. Wait that's me. Taxes are for the littler guy. Yeah you.

Dodd: Is This Full Disclosure?

I'll assume you know that we've waited 8 months or more for the senior Senator from CT to reveal his relationship with Countrywide Mortgage CEO Angelo Mozilo.

Now that he's finally decided to let the public in on his financial records, there are still more questions. The elephant in the room remains: did he or did he not give favorable treatment to Countrywide (and others) as a result of the favorable rates he got on his mortgage.

He might actually believe he got no special deal. And he might even believe that his actions as head of the Senate Banking Committee weren't influenced in any way.

In other times I might say that Sen. Dodd was the poster child for all that's wrong in Washington government. And as the Hartford Courant points out, the central question of whether he took favors from Countrywide mortgage or just negotiated shrewdly has still to be determined.

But, Sen. Dodd looks above reproach next to the other headliners in today's news: former Sen. Daschle (isn't tax evasion a felony, by the way?) who just withdrew his nomination, Hartford mayor Eddie Perez (who pleaded not guilty to bribery in court today and triggered a NYTimes editorial) and Nancy Killefer, who withdrew from being a candidate for the (holy cow) position of Chief Performance Officer.