Inside Blogotics

Dodd ‘dohhh’

Moe Lane at Red State says “you almost have to feel sorry” for Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, Connecticut Democrat. Almost.

In a post at the popular conservative site, Mr. Lane poses a rhetorical “brief intelligence test”: “Question: If you are a Senator who has spent the last week bashing lobbyists in a desperate attempt to look like a populist, would you or would you not attend an elitist DSCC retreat designed to put Democratic politicians and K Street checkbooks in the same room?”

“If the answer is ‘you would not attend,’ congratulations: you’re smarter than Chris Dodd,” Mr. Lane wrote, going onto cite a report from The Hill that Mr. Dodd “after distancing himself from lobbyists in campaign ads … was on Martha’s Vineyard this weekend meeting with some of the most well known names on K Street.”

An ever-understanding Mr. Lane went on to say of the Connecticut senator, who is running for re-election in 2010: “Not that he has much choice: when MSNBC is admitting that you’re a Democrat and you have a polling problem, you needs lots and lots of money.”

According to that report at the MSNBC site, a Wilson Research Strategies poll of 400 likely voters showed former Rep. Rob Simmons leading Mr. Dodd by 47 percent to 38 percent. Even against a little known potential Republican candidate, Peter Schiff, the quarter-century incumbent has only a statistically insignificant 42-38 lead.

Ted love

After having turned itself over to guest editor Steven Colbert, Newsweek used the cover of its latest issue to plug a lengthy personal essay by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, “written with Robert Shrum, Senator Kennedy’s friend and longtime speechwriter,” about “the cause of my life” — nationalizing health care.

“They are pulling out all the stops,” said Steve Gilbert at Sweetness and Light about the increasingly liberal newsmagazine. “After all these years, they finally cut the middleman,” snarked Jim Geraghty of National Review on his Twitter feed.

Conservatives also noted the essay’s inevitable pickups on the nightly news and the lack of coverage of the anniversary of something else important in Mr. Kennedy’s political profile.

Wrote Brent Baker of the Media Research Center at the group’s Newsbusters site. “ABC and NBC on Sunday night dutifully championed his cause as World News anchor Dan Harris highlighted how ‘Kennedy is using his own battle against brain cancer to make an emotional pitch for health care reform’ and NBC reporter Mike Viqueira touted: ‘Today, another dramatic push, this time from an ailing Ted Kennedy, absent from Washington but appearing on the cover of Newsweek.’ ”

“Though this weekend was the 40th anniversary of Chappaquiddick, the ABC, CBS and NBC evening newscasts haven’t uttered a syllable about it,” Mr. Baker wrote.

Mr. Gilbert made the same juxtaposition, before going on to note something else about Kennedy legislation.

“But if you remember only one thing about Mr. Kennedy, remember he is the same man who brought the nation ‘immigration reform,’ of the Immigration And Nationality Act Of 1965. About his bill, Mr. Kennedy promised: ‘First, our cities will not be flooded with a million immigrants annually. Under the proposed bill, the present level of immigration remains substantially the same … Secondly, the ethnic mix of this country will not be upset … The bill will not flood our cities with immigrants. It will not upset the ethnic mix of our society. It will not relax the standards of admission. It will not cause American workers to lose their jobs.’ ”

“And look how that turned out,” Mr. Gilbert concluded. “The lesson is that Mr. Kennedy and the rest of the Democrats will promise anything to get their nation-changing legislation passed. They seek to remake our country to suit their own fantasies, and they will say or do whatever it takes to get their way.”

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