Just Call Him Senator (Blumenthal)

[babylonsister]

http://www.slate.com/id/2240729/pagenum/all/#p2

Just Call Him Senator
An assessment of Richard Blumenthal, the man most likely to replace Connecticut's Christopher Dodd.
By David Plotz
Posted Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2010, at 3:29 PM ET


Today, Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., announced he would not run for re-election. Just a few hours later, the state's attorney general, Democrat Richard Blumenthal, announced his candidacy for the seat. David Plotz assessed Blumenthal in 2000; the article is reprinted below.

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal—catalyst of state lawsuits against Microsoft, Big Tobacco, and now HMOs—is inspiring an emotion that he surely has never inspired before: sympathy. Blumenthal, after all, is the perennial golden boy of New England politics. He's smart, handsome, and rich. He has a great job suing the bejesus out of nefarious corporations. He's nicknamed "Mr. Perfect." Why would anyone feel sorry for him?

Blumenthal, once one of the most promising young Democratic pols in the nation, is languishing. He saw his bid for a federal appeals court judgeship collapse this summer, as the Clinton administration decided he couldn't win Senate approval before Clinton's term ends. Then, when Al Gore named Joe Lieberman as his running mate, Blumenthal seemed to have a free pass to Lieberman's Senate seat. If Lieberman decided to drop his Senate campaign, Blumenthal would have replaced him on the November ballot and waltzed to victory. (There is only token GOP opposition.) But Lieberman is continuing his Senate campaign, so if Gore loses the presidential race, Lieberman will remain in the Senate. And if Gore wins, GOP Gov. John Rowland will appoint a Republican to replace Lieberman. To move up to Washington, Blumenthal would have to wage a tough fight against the GOP incumbent in 2002. (It's also possible that the legislature could call a special election for 2001.) Blumenthal was supposed to be "the Jewish Kennedy." Now the 54-year-old finds himself in the autumn of his career fighting for Joe Lieberman's sloppy seconds.

Blumenthal is blessed with every political virtue except recklessness and luck. His résumé makes Gore's look like a high-school dropout's. Son of a wealthy German immigrant, he graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Harvard, captained the swim team, and was editorial chairman of the Harvard Crimson. He interned a year at the Washington Post, where he became publisher Katharine Graham's aide-de-camp (an early sign of his talent for befriending the rich and powerful).

Pat Moynihan liked Blumenthal's senior thesis on the failure of poverty programs so much that he incorporated much of it into his own book and recruited Blumenthal to work for him in the Nixon White House. At 24, Blumenthal turned down the directorship of VISTA. He enlisted in the Marines rather than duck the Vietnam draft. Then he went to Yale Law School, where he edited the Yale Law Journal, of course. He followed that by clerking for Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun, then serving as right-hand man to Sen. Abe Ribicoff. In 1977, President Jimmy Carter appointed him U.S. attorney for Connecticut, making him, at 31, the youngest U.S. attorney ever. He climbed ever upward in the '80s, winning election to the state House and Senate, marrying a rich and beautiful woman, fathering four kids, and still finding time to save an innocent man on death row.

snip//

His endless labor has gone unrewarded because he had nowhere to climb. Fellow Democrats Lieberman and Chris Dodd locked down the two Senate seats, the jobs he most wanted. Blumenthal could have run for governor in 1994, but he didn't want to risk losing in that Republican year. In 1998, he blanched at the prospect of challenging popular incumbent Gov. Rowland. Instead, he ran again for attorney general. Blumenthal is the kind of meritocratic pol who would have done better in a time when politics was more hierarchical. A generation or two ago, a politician with Blumenthal's brains and drive would have been reserved a Senate seat because Democratic Party elders would have ensured it. But in today's more chaotic politics, the prudent Blumenthal has kept waiting and waiting and waiting for his turn. "He's intelligent. He's a decent guy. He just doesn't have the fire for a tough run," says New Haven Advocate political columnist Paul Bass. "He wants it to be handed to him, and it never was."

Unlike most politicians, who become more restrained the longer they serve, Blumenthal has responded to his years of frustration by becoming ever more feisty as attorney general. He pushed the Microsoft suit even as he was passing on the 1998 governor's race. He joined the AGs' assault on gun manufacturers as his potential appeals court seat was slipping away. Last week, as it became clear that Lieberman wouldn't step aside for him, Blumenthal filed the first major class-action lawsuits against HMOs, demanding that four Connecticut insurers improve their patient appeal process, pay doctors promptly, and provide better information about prescription drug coverage. It is just the kind of nasty, fun, popular, and questionable legal battle Blumenthal relishes, and just what he would miss if he ever does make it to the Senate.

[hlthe2b]

1. Looks very likely, but I sure hate our getting ahead of ourselves...

Shit happens, sometimes. That said, I look forward to having someone like Blumenthal in the Senate.

[Ken Burch]

2. Blumenthal is already a dead loss if he agreed with Moynihan on poverty issues

Moynihan is to blame for the 40 year hate campaign against welfare mothers. You can't possibly agree with him and have any compassion in your soul. Connecticut doesn't need a bland anti-progressive as Senator. It's only in the South that it's acceptable to nominate DINO's.

And you don't belong in this party if you have a "talent for befriending the rich and powerful". The rich and powerful are the ENEMIES of the people who vote Democratic.

This is about rigging this seat for the most worthless candidate possible. Your own article already shows him to be to the RIGHT of Dodd.

Why the hell should we settle for another dead loss?

[stray cat]

4. Who do you prefer and how likely is that person to get elected - what will you do to help them win?

[Ken Burch]

5. I prefer Lamont, or, if not him, Rosa De Lauro.

I can't stomach a candidate who agrees with Pat Moynihan on how evil poor women supposedly are.

[Hippo_Tron]

35. Moynihan strongly opposed welfare reform in 1996, though

His legacy on these issues is controversial, to say the least, but I don't see how you derive the idea that you can't possibly agree with him and not have any compassion in your soul. Particularly since it seems his views on the issue evolved over time.

[Shadowwiggs]

3. Many many weaknesses are obvious

Silver spoon baby.

He was ready to put Dodd in Jail.

and

Anti gay marriage

Supports less government control

Supports war on terror

Supports lower taxes

Pretty sure he is anti-abortion based on comments over his life

More will come out shortly. I think Connecticut better find someone who can actually win an election versus get a job by being connected and wealthy.

[CTyankee]

21. I worked for Planned Parenthood of CT from 1998 to 2004. Dick and Cindy Blumenthal

were among our most avid supporters in the entire state! You are so misinformed it is ridiculous! Dick helped PPC politically as well. Cindy was on our fundraising committee for YEARS planning special events in Greenwich and using their considerable contacts to draw in new donors. Dick was at every one of those events when I was there and spoke warmly and strongly for family planning and reproductive freedom.

Cindy is indeed a wealthy woman but she is far from glamorous. If anything, she is rather bookish and a real straight arrow, esp. among the glitterati of Greenwich. Her parents (her father Peter Malkin owned the Empire State Building at one point) were also PPC supporters, among our most generous. They are nice people, like Cindy. I cannot blindly hate rich people if I know them to be decent and these people are.

You have been swayed by this one article and it is a shame. Learn more before you spout off nonsense...

[Ken Burch]

6. Are you cheerleading for this guy for any reason OTHER than that he's anti-progressive?

You used to care about the poor. At some point you gave up and settled for voting for people who CALLED themselves Democrats. Why?

[babylonsister]

7. Prove how he's anti-progressive. Oh, and as usual, get over yourself. nt

[Ken Burch]

8. The quote about his working relationship with Moynihan proves it

The quote you highlighted in your OP.

Also, his ability to "make friends with the rich and powerful". That says which side you're on right there.

[babylonsister]

10. Lame. What politician can be dissed for that? nt

[Ken Burch]

11. If a politician is running as a Democrat, and collaborated with this country's foremost poorbasher

(Which is what Blumenthal did, based on the quote in YOUR OP), than "dissing" is the least that should be done.

We are supposed to be the party that fights FOR the poor and helps them find ways to escape poverty...not the party that demonizes poor black women with kids just because they were poor black women with kids. Moynihan was also the man who called for(and got)a national policy of "benign neglect" towards the poor, slandering poor women as immoral for having kids on their own even though the reason they were raising kids on their own was that our government had a barbaric policy that forbade two-parent families from getting public assistance, a policy that left those families with no alternative but to break up or starve.

What Moynihan and Blumenthal did with the "culture of poverty" slur caused untold misery to generations.

[babylonsister]

12. Go away. Ugh. Ugly. Good luck, and good night.

And you're a Dem? Prove it. You're an ass who wants to stir shit up. Always. :eyes:

[Ken Burch]

13. You've admitted you don't have a good response.

Well, when you back a poorbasher, you have problems like that.

I guess what I really don't get is how, as an African American woman, you could be cool with anyone who enabled Moynihan. Moynihan persecuted people like you and Blumenthal helped him. Doesn't that bother you at all?

[hileeopnyn8d]

24. That is incorrect

Moynihan supported a Guaranteed Minimum Income/Basic Income Guarantee - and was against the "man out of the house" rule.

[Ken Burch]

14. There's no difference between making friends with the rich and powerful

and giving up your principles.

Look at Bill Clinton. Look at Bono. Case closed.

[mucifer]

18. Al Franken has lots of right wing friends and he's a great senator.

No he's not perfect. I know perfect is what you want. Our political system doesn't work for perfect candidates.

[smalll]

9. Wasn't Blumethal the one expected to overtopple LIEBERMAN next time he ran?

The fact that Blumenthal will be replacing Dodd has got to give ol' Joe some real satisfaction. With Blumenthal no longer an issue, don't look now, but Lieberman MAY -- with a little LUCK -- be able to hold on for ANOTHER six long years.

This news, when you think about it, is not that good.

Sayin'! :shrug:

[Ken Burch]

16. "Overtopple"?

:eyes:

[Jennicut]

28. Lieberman's numbers are tanking here and there is the possibility of my rep Chris Murphy running

against him. Chris is very popular in my district. I think he could beat Lieberman.

[burning rain]

15. This is good news from Connecticut, & most welcome in these tough times.

Would've hated to have lost that Senate seat.

[CTLawGuy]

17. If we want to accomplish ANYTHING

between '11 and '13, we need to keep this and every other seat we have.

[burning rain]

25. I want that too, but for it to be possible, Senate Democrats need to start TRYING.

The fact that they hew to the 60-vote rule rather than adopt majority rule, by itself shows that they're not really trying. I'm a Yellow-Dog Democrat on election day--I know Republicans are always worse--but most Americans aren't, and if Senate Democrats don't start posting better results, they will lose seats in 2010.

[CTLawGuy]

27. under the rules

the filibuster exists, the dems can't just ignore it without taking questionable procedural action, action they may regret later in time. The fact is that the Republicans are forcing the 60 vote rule on us. We are not doing a good job of making that clear, even to our own activists.

[burning rain]

31. Senate Democrats are *choosing* to let Republicans force the 60-vote rule on them.

Most Americans don't give two shits about ye olde gloriouse traditions of comity, unanimous consente, collegiality, endlesse silly posturing, er, deliberation, and all that other happy horseshit in the Senate. We want some results. If Senate Democrats will not do what it take to deliver better, whether by using the nuclear option or changing the Senate rules to simple-majority-for-cloture, they will suffer reversals at the polls in 2010.

At the same time, it's irrational to expect Republicans to be at all cooperative. Their base HATES Democrats in general and President Obama in particular. The GOP would only hurt its chances at the next election by being less than full-on obstructionist. Our party's job is to steamroll those miserable fucks, and if Senate Democrats lack the will to do so, they will demoralize their own base and lose seats in 2010.

[CTLawGuy]

32. I hope you weren't one of the ones screaming your head off

for a filibuster of Sam Alito back in 06, for example.

We won't be in the majority forever.

[burning rain]

33. No, I wasn't.

I support majority rule in the Senate, whoever has the majority. Americans should get what we vote for, and we should get it good and hard.

[CTLawGuy]

34. that's fine then

its refreshing to see consistency :)

[babylonsister]

19. Dodd's heir -- Lieberman's nightmare

http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/joe_conason/index.html?story=/opinion/conason/2010/01/06/blogging_again_and_blumenthal

Dodd's heir -- Lieberman's nightmare
Popular, principled Dick Blumenthal, the next likely senator from Connecticut, will surely irk Joe Lieberman
By Joe Conason



First, a reintroduction of sorts. Nearly every time I’ve gone back to look up a post from the Salon archive of my blog over the past few years, I felt more than a moment’s nostalgia. Writing a weekly column here has always been a privilege, but blogs have come to dominate the Internet for many good reasons that I learned back in the early days of the form. So when Joan Walsh asked me late last year if I would resume Joe Conason’s Journal, the answer was easy -- even though my life is more complicated now, with responsibilities at the Investigative Fund of the Nation Institute, a new book on Bill Clinton’s post-presidency under way, and my column for the New York Observer (plus twin toddlers at home).

It is refreshing to blog again on a day featuring good news, at least for the citizens of Connecticut, who have suffered the humiliation of not one but two discredited United States senators. The senior senator, Chris Dodd, is the sadder member of this pair, having compiled a decent record and maintained a likable persona (which distinguishes him from the junior senator, the Independent from the insurance industry, in ways that are all too well known). But his state’s voters, who trusted him and returned him to the Senate for five terms, felt betrayed when they learned about his sweetheart loan from Countrywide Financial and watched him protect the bonuses of overpaid executives at AIG. His approval ratings never recovered.

Dodd’s vulnerability had tempted Republicans to believe they could capture his seat, despite the deep blue hue of the Nutmeg State -- until today, when Attorney General Richard Blumenthal will announce that he plans to seek the Democratic senatorial nomination next summer. Although he has endured plenty of criticism in the political press -- both for his Hamlet-like reluctance to run for higher office and his defense of Dodd -- he is by far the most popular elected official in the state.

What he hasn’t hesitated to do is wield state power against industrial polluters, corporate tax evaders, credit-card gougers, consumer abusers, financial fraudsters, violent felons, and other public enemies. He is among the most progressive politicians in Connecticut -- and for that matter he is also among the most admired and most progressive among his official peers across the nation.

Every poll has shown that Blumenthal can beat any Republican still dreaming about the Dodd seat, which means Connecticut will be spared the further embarrassment of being represented in the Senate by someone like Linda McMahon (as this brand-new PPP survey shows). In fact, Blumenthal has aspired to a Senate seat for many years. Lately, he seems to have grown as exasperated with Joe Lieberman as everyone else, and was said to be seriously considering a run against him in 2012. If nothing else it will be fun to see how Lieberman deals with the prospect of a Sen. Blumenthal, whose integrity and principle are sure to irritate him terribly. Consider just one example: Blumenthal was among a tiny handful of state officials who fought immunity for the telecom companies that illegally cooperated with the Bush surveillance program.

[mucifer]

20. sounds like a typical right winger to me :)

[CTyankee]

22. Isn't it amazing? This twisted image of Dick Blumenthal here at DU in JUST ONE DAY

has me scratching my head. Conason's piece is right on. And Dick rightly deserves the name of progressive and liberal.

Where do people get these weird ideas? Would Dick Blumenthal be wasting his time going after the big interests in every area of our lives if he were against poor people? Maybe his family's wealth has insured that he DOESN'T have to go into politics simply to line his pockets?

As for the Moynihan thing, I say let's wait and see what he says now. A lot of water has flowed under that bridge over the years...and I will predict that this story has been distorted badly...

The depiction of Cindy Blumenthal as a sort of rich femme fatale is so absurd I laughed out loud when I read it. She's not unattractive, but she is very serious, rather quiet, hardworking and a bit self effacing. Once the public gets to know these two, such misinformation (downright LIES) about the Blumenthals will become known.

Some people here ought to be ashamed of themselves...soon, I hope they will be!

[Jennicut]

29. Being in CT all 34 years of my life I have never once heard Blumenthal described

as anything but a liberal. In fact I know of Repubs here that like him despite the fact that he is so progressive. Strange, isn't it? He is also killing the competition in two polls right now. We will most likely hold onto this seat now and it will be with someone who will make a great Senator.

[CTyankee]

30. My only problem with Blumenthal is his apparent indifference to taking on bullies like

glenn Beck who badgered him, talked over him, interrupted him and generally ridiculed him in an interview last year. He's going to have to learn how to square away with the Glenn Becks as awful as they are. Either that or just ignore them (which may not be a bad idea).

[nyc 4 Biden]

23. You forgot the best part...

He was born in Brooklyn! :7

[thatsrightimirish]

26. im wating for The Undertaker's endorsement nt