Chris Dodd for President

Chris Dodd passes along his thanks for the support the blogs, including Jane Hamsher and the FireDogLake community, have given to his efforts in this campaign and through his Senate leadership on New Year's Eve after a huge event in Waterloo, Iowa.

Happy New Year everyone! Your support is crucial, it's been what's driven our campaign and will continue to carry Chris Dodd to greater and greater success in Iowa in a few days and throughout 2008.

Senator Dodd just finished a live stream at Fire Dog Lake. He spoke about his actions to stop retroactive immunity, restoring the Constitution, and upholding the rule of law.

Thanks to Jane Hamsher at Fire Dog Lake for hosting the chat with Senator Dodd, as well as Taylor Marsh, Atrios, Chris Bowers, tparty, Melissa McEwan, Phillip Anderson, Talk Left, MyDD and others who posted the live stream so their readers could see it.

Update:

Cliff Schecter has more.

Today Senator Dodd will speaking at a rally in support of restoring habeas corpus, reversing the Military Commissions Act, and restoring the Constitution. It's being brought together under a coalition of organizations, including the ACLU, Amnesty International, Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, and the National Religious Campaign Against Torture. It looks like there will be a crowd of over 3,000 people outside the Capitol this afternoon. Senator Dodd has been a strong supporter of restoring the Constitution since the onerous day that the Military Commissions Act was passed last fall. Dodd understands that the roll-back of rights and protections under the Bush administration has made us less secure. Senator Dodd's Restoring the Constitution Act would reverse the MCA, restore habeas, and ensure that America does not allow torture. Learn more at http://restore-habeas.org and join the more than 12,000 people who have become citizen co-sponsors of the the Restoring the Constitution Act. Senator Dodd will be speaking at the rally at 12:45. I'll be going and will report back later this afternoon. Christy Hardin Smith of FireDogLake has a run-down of current efforts to restore the Constitution. She's whipping her readers to get their representatives on the right side of the issue today: "Please take some time to call your elected representatives and tell them that you want to see the full restoration of habeas corpus. And that actions speak much louder than words — so you would like action on this now." Bob Geiger has more. Jeralyn Merritt of TalkLeft has two great posts up on efforts to close the prisons at Guantanamo Bay. First she draws attention to Senator Harkin's bill to close Gitmo -- Senator Dodd was the first co-sponsor to this legislation. Merritt writes, "For every day that the U.S. continues to hold detainees at Guantanamo without charges, the U.S. loses credibility with the world and violates our long-established and cherished standards of due process and adherence to the rule of law." Merritt also evaluates differing arguments for the procedure set up by the MCA to handle military commissions; it's a great piece that makes clear why these commissions are antithetical to America's spirit and history of moral leadership in the world.

This morning I spoke with Siun of FireDogLake at the Take Back America conference. She has been very impressed with Senator Dodd's work to end the Iraq War. In this video she talks about Senator Dodd's leadership in the fight against the Iraq supplemental bill last month.

News from around the 'Tubes... An editorial in The Capital Times (Madison, WI) praises Senator Dodd's leadership to end the Iraq war:

Dodd has again played a critical role in this campaign -- that of the senior senator who is saying no to the president and forcing the hand of senators who might otherwise vote to allow Bush to surge the United States deeper into quagmire. In the whole ugly process that, ultimately, gave Bush what he wanted, there were few heroes. But grass-roots Democrats who oppose the war ought to appreciate that it is Dodd who has been working with Feingold to turn the Senate -- and the Democratic Party -- in an anti-war direction.

Caffinated Geek Girl of CT Local Politics says, "I'm a big fan of these live streams. It’s the most innovative thing I’ve seen from any of the candidates online, and the Dodd campaign keeps coming up with new and interesting ways to utilize the technology." Connecticut Bob writes about yesterday's live web chat at FDL: "The Senator answered questions submitted by blogging in a "live" format, meaning you get to see and hear him react and answer the questions in real time. This is an outstanding concept, where the voters get to virtually meet and ask questions of the candidate." Markos of DailyKos and Chris Bowers of MyDD both talk about the ramifications of Senator Dodd backing out of the Fox News/CBC debate.