Polls show Dodd near the back of the pack of the party's presidential hopefuls, along with Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich. A surprisingly good showing in the Iowa caucus, the first electoral stop on the road to the nomination, is vital for his candidacy to continue. "It would be hard for me not to do better than my expectations in Iowa," joked the 63-year-old candidate. Expectation is the name of the game in primary season. A third-place finish in Iowa in January would be a calamity for front-runners Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards, but a third-place finish for Dodd would make him the big story of the campaign heading into the New Hampshire primary. "Dodd is the longest of long-shot candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination. But he doesn't seem too agitated about that," wrote David Yepsen, the political columnist for the Des Moines Register. "He's an experienced politician. He knows how the caucus game often breaks late." Senator Chris Dodd of Connecticut served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Dominican Republic in the 1960's.
At the back of the pack, Dodd has hopes for candidacy, nation
At the back of the pack, Dodd has hopes for candidacy, nation
Candidate who sees triumph in his father's Nuremberg efforts hopes for equal measure in Iowa.
By Bob Dart
WASHINGTON BUREAU
Sunday, December 02, 2007
WASHINGTON — About this story
This is one in a series of occasional profiles examining the 2008 candidates for president.
On a sunny April day in 2006, Democratic Sen. Chris Dodd asked his wife to take a walk beside the Connecticut River near their home in East Haddam.
"I said, 'Great, I'll get the girls ready,' but he said, 'I think we need a baby sitter,' " recalled Jackie Clegg Dodd. Their daughters, Grace and Christina, were 4 and 1.
"I thought he was going to say that we should have a third child. That was going to be a hard sell," said Jackie Dodd, 45. "When he said he wanted to run for president, I agreed to it much too soon. But at my age, I was relieved that he wasn't saying, 'Let's have another baby.' "
Polls show Dodd near the back of the pack of the party's presidential hopefuls, along with Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich. A surprisingly good showing in the Iowa caucus, the first electoral stop on the road to the nomination, is vital for his candidacy to continue.
"It would be hard for me not to do better than my expectations in Iowa," joked the 63-year-old candidate.
He's even moved his wife and daughters to the state and is devoting far more campaign time to Iowa than virtually all of his rivals.
Expectation is the name of the game in primary season. A third-place finish in Iowa in January would be a calamity for front-runners Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards, but a third-place finish for Dodd would make him the big story of the campaign heading into the New Hampshire primary.
"Dodd is the longest of long-shot candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination. But he doesn't seem too agitated about that," wrote David Yepsen, the political columnist for the Des Moines Register. "He's an experienced politician. He knows how the caucus game often breaks late."
Dodd learned about patience early in life.
His father left his family for 17 months after World War II to pursue justice for Nazi war criminals in the Nuremberg trials. With Joseph Stalin and Winston Churchill calling for firing squads, Thomas Dodd wanted the rule of law to prevail for even the most evil of humanity, his son explained.
"I have great respect and admiration for my father," Dodd said. The admiring son has compiled his father's letters to his mother during this long absence into a book titled "Letters From Nuremberg: My Father's Narrative of a Quest for Justice." The book was released in September.
The candidate compares the triumph of the rule of law in those trials — for Hermann Goering, Albert Speer, Rudolf Hess and other notorious Nazi criminals — with what he sees as a disregard for the rule of law in the Bush administration's fight against terrorism.
"My real reason for publishing the letters was my outrage over what this administration has done for the rule of law," Dodd said.
"My father fought for the ideal of a trial for some of the worst violators of human rights in history."
Dodd first read the letters in 1990 after his sister found them in her basement. He said the letters expressed an emotional devotion and longing by his father for his wife and family that the son had never imagined.
"I thought, 'Who is this guy writing love letters to my mother?' " he said from Iowa in a telephone interview.
The fifth of six children, Chris Dodd was born in 1944 — the year before his father went to Nuremberg. As a 16-year-old student at Georgetown Preparatory School, he stood at the Capitol and heard former President Kennedy's inaugural address calling for citizens to serve their country.
Chris Dodd was a 23-year-old Peace Corps volunteer in the Dominican Republic in 1967 and his father was a Democratic U.S. senator from Connecticut when another searing moment in family history occurred. By a 92-5 vote, the Senate censured Thomas Dodd for diverting campaign funds for personal use.
Thomas Dodd died four years later — "a broken man," as described by The New York Times.
Chris Dodd disputes any notion that his book or his campaign is aimed at vindication for his father.
"No, my father has been gone for almost 40 years," he said.
Dodd said he is running because he believes that he has, among the candidates, a unique ability to bring Congress and the nation together after "the most important election in our lifetime."
"For 26 years, I've brought people together" in the Senate, he said. "No one party is going to solve our problems. It's going to take leadership that knows how to bridge that gap."
Dodd said he has worked with Republicans on all of his legislative achievements.
He recalled forming the first Senate Children's Caucus with Pennsylvania Republican Arlen Specter in 1983, co-authoring the Family and Medical Leave Act with Missouri Republican Kit Bond, joining Utah Republican Orrin Hatch to create the Child Care and Development Block Grant and working with Ohio Republican Mike DeWine to pass the FIRE Act to provide federal funds for communities to train and equip firefighters.
On other issues, he worked with Texas Republican Phil Gramm and Kentucky Republican Mitch McConnell to pass bills, Dodd said.
"I deliberately sought out people I don't normally agree with," he said.
"If there is anything I hear while campaigning, it's how angry people are over the leadership's inability to do anything."
Other candidates talk about working with political opponents to get things accomplished, Dodd said.
"That's what I do every day."
Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn.
Born:May 27, 1944, in Willimantic, Conn.
Education:Law degree, University of Louisville School of Law, 1972; bachelor's, Providence College, 1966
Military service:Army, 1969-75
Political career:U.S. Senate, 1981-present; U.S. House, 1975-81
Religion: Roman Catholic
Family:Wife Jackie Clegg Dodd, two daughters
