Chris Dodd Retiring-- Harold Ford Maneuvering

Michael Moore got his scalp. Chris Dodd, who polling showed was a dead duck for re-election, will retire Chances are Connecticut's very popular Attorney General, Richard Blumenthal, will run for Senate and easily beat whichever one of the increasingly right-wing misanthropes the GOP vomits out. It's ironic that it was Dodd who was forced out as a Connecticut senator rather than the most despised man in Connecticut politics, Joe Lieberman. Luck of the draw! I do want to add, however, that Dodd wasn't exactly some towering liberal. His career long voting record on substantive matters paints a clear picture, right in the center of the Democratic Senate causus, the 29th most progressive member among the 59 Democrats. His 85.13 score on substantive issues lies between the voting scores of arch-conservatives like Mark Pryor (AR- 70.45), Tom Carper (DE- 70.70), Joe Lieberman (CT- 72.50) and Evan Bayh (IN- 74.03) and actual liberals like Sherrod Brown (OH- 96.56), Jack Reed (RI- 95.68), Bernie Sanders (VT-95.06), Dick Durbin (IL- 94.04) and Barbara Boxer (CA- 93.81).

And in other news today, one of the most corrupt and reactionary Democrats to ever worm his way up the chain of command, DLC president and defeated ex-Tennessee Rep. Harold Ford has barraged New York media with an armada of trial balloons for a run for the Senate against incumbent Kirsten Gillibrand. Gillibrand was a bit too conservative as a freshman House member from a Republican upstate district-- though never nearly as conservative as Ford, who represented a solidly Democratic district (Memphis)-- but she has been a solidly progressive senator. Ford is certainly to the right of Joe Lieberman and he would be the worst catastrophe Democrats could face in 2010. Despite all the hootin' and hollerin' on Morning Joe today, I doubt he'll run.

Good video update from Connecticut TV: