Dodd

I want to see Doddmentum as much as any other white male progressive pundit I know, but obviously that's not possible under circumstances like these.

Senator Dodd, you write in your book that you still struggle with the memories of when your father, former senator Thomas Dodd, was censured by the Senate in 1967 for alleged misuse of campaign money. How much are you motivated in your run for president by a desire to restore the Dodd family name that was hurt by this censure?

I feel like I've written too much recently about how terrible campaign reportage is, so I won't make that obvious point. But here's another: Not only is this sort of question totally unedifying to anybody who's not writing a biography of Chris Dodd; given the setting and the moderators allergic inability to ask Dodd anything that might give him a chance to help himself, it's also sort of mean spirited. It suggests, in an oblique way, that Dodd's ambitions are purely tribal--that he couldn't possibly be motivated, at least in part, by a more pure desire to improve the world.

Of course, that's not true. And, of course, there's very little mud on the Dodd family name, as Thomas Dodd--in addition to being involved in some relatively penny ante ethical shenanigans--was also something of a heroic public servant.