Dodd’s fellow Senators spent over a year investigating the charges brought by the Citizens for Responsible Ethics in Washington. They found no credible evidence in their search, but did say the Senator should have used better judgment to avoid the appearance of preferential treatment for being a Senator. But really, what’s the point of being a Senator without a few perks.

This will give the campaign to elect Chris Dodd a boost. Now financial institutions can contribute to the banking committee chairman’s re-election campaign without the taint of corruption affecting them.

There’s been a struggle over whether to issue a subpoena for Countrywide mortgage records to see what other lawmakers were in the VIP program. This should go away now that the ethics committee has ruled the VIP program was proper, well as far as they could tell. The elect Chris Dodd campaign is confident that members of the ethics committee were not also Countrywide VIP members.

I’m running for re-election. Now, I’ll be a little leaner and a little meaner. But I am running.

This will fold right in with the election campaign. Senator Dodd has already admitted he has better healthcare than others:

“I have the benefit of being in Congress. Having a good health care plan is not available to everyone.”

This has also benefited the campaign by taking the recent Countrywide mortgage scandal off the front pages. He’ll also be more sympathetic figure when opponents bring up the senator’s past indiscretions. The campaign to elect Chris Dodd gets yet another boost.

As Senator Dodd has already stated. He didn’t know he was receiving special treatment. And an independent report, paid for out of the Senators own pocket, also indicated the deal was similar to deals offered to others at the time.

Now, who you going to believe? A powerful US Senator who helps regulate the company he’s doing business with or a guy who could be charged with giving false testimony for his allegations.

Besides, didn’t you think the Senator would be mighty pissed off if he thought his treatment was special only to later learn others got the same deal? That would be bait and switch and not something the Senator Dodd would let stand. He’s a powerful US Senator, not one of the masses.

And now, as a Dodd campaign ad announces, those banks are acting like crybabies and calling Dodd a “meanie”.

What a short memory those bankers have. After all that Senator Dodd did for them over the years, helping them to reap record profits at the expense of the financial stability of America consumers.

Haven’t they learned anything? Senator Dodd is all about what’s in it for him. It benefited him to help the bankers in the past, now it’s to his benefit to appear to serve the people. So appear to serve the people he will. Those ungrateful bankers just need to shut up and wait until the senator is re-elected and he no longer needs to server the people. (Of course, the grumbling does help the Senator appear to serve the people, so we’re just kidding about shutting up.)

Senator Dodd just needs people to realize his priorities haven’t changed one bit.

The commercial:

Like many of you, I’ve lost faith in Senator Dodd. He’s become part of a culture of corruption in Washington. He’s more interested in protecting his job than yours.

As the saying goes, truth is no defense.  Dodd’s priority of protecting his job is exactly what the people of Connecticut need. Senator Dodd’s party loyalty will make his fellow democrats rally to his defense and his corporate patrons will open their wallets. The money will flow to Connecticut as Dodd spends furiously to buy the election.

Wait, on second thought, this could be a financial boom for the incumbent Senator. The more challengers there are the more the friends of Chris Dodd will pay the Senator.

The local news reported on the announcement.