If Sen. Chris Dodd is unsuccessful in achieving the passage of the financial regulation bill he is sponsoring in the U.S. Senate, it won’t be for lack of trying. Dodd, head of the Senate Banking Committee, has galvanized Democrats to support the bill, and has found a way to begin to pull some Republicans in to support it as well, bound and determined to make it happen even if it takes some compromise with key Republicans before it’s put before them for consideration this week. Alabama’s Republican Sen. Richard Shelby, for instance, said on NBC TV’s “Meet the Press� on Sunday, April 25, that the bill was getting very close to being one which would win his vote.
Dodd has used his power of persuasion and legislative skills, considerable as they are, to try to find a way to pass financial reform as part of his swan song in the Senate. He, of course, announced in January that he will not run again for the Senate seat he has held since 1981 in service to the state of Connecticut. Immediately prior to his announcement, he was referred to more often than not in the media as the “embattled� Sen. Chris Dodd; since his announcement, the heat resulting from media glare has been turned way down and he has been able to turn his attention to governing, working to help pass key legislation such as the health-care bill, and now the financial reform bill. It is to his credit that he has put the time in and given it his all. He could have taken a much less rigorous approach to the last chapter of his legislative career in the Senate, using the “lame duck� portion of his term as an excuse to sit back and watch others take the lead who have more at stake in the coming election.
It could be that those in Washington who have decided not to run when their terms expire have the best chance to get some governing done. Even an incumbent in either the U.S. Senate or House of Representatives faces the relentless need to raise money and keep constantly in the public eye in order to remain competitive and win elections. It can seem that the entire careers of some legislators now are spent campaigning and keeping their presence known in the 24-hour news cycle, rather than governing.
Dodd’s legacy will certainly be affected by the outcome of his efforts in attaining financial reform before he bows out of public life, and the argument could be made that this is part of his motivation. However, he has clearly taken on some measure of responsibility as the head of the Senate Banking Committee for the lack of regulation that allowed banks to become too big to fail, leading to economic collapse and worldwide recession.
As Dodd pointed out in an op-ed column in The Hartford Courant April 25, the lack of regulation also created an atmosphere where the banks were too willing to take huge risks in that it was a win-win situation for them: If they succeeded, they made a lot of money, and if they failed, they knew the federal government would be forced to bail them out.
If Dodd succeeds in obtaining passage of the financial regulation legislation before he steps down, it will be a positive end to a long career of service to the state of Connecticut. It will be good for the state, for the nation and for the global economy. One can’t ask much more of a retiring politician.
