Chris Dodd for President

Iowa's state flag reads "Our liberties we prize and our rights we will maintain."

What a fitting motto for the state that tonight will serve as the proving ground for the Democratic field.

In little over a year, a new President will be sworn into the Oval Office. That person will be tasked with many jobs from Day One, but perhaps none is more important than the restoration of our Constitution following eight years of abuse at the hands of the Bush administration.

While Iowans spend the last three hours or so before the caucus pondering which candidate they will stand with, I hope they take the time to look at their state flag. Re-read their state motto. Then make their decision.

Only one candidate has made standing up for the Constitution central to his campaign.

Only one candidate authored a book this year about our nation's proudest moment standing up for the rule of law.

Only one candidate left the campaign trail to return to Washington and stop another assault on our rights.

Only one candidate has pledged that on the very first hour of the very first day, he will restore the Constitution of the United States of America.

Our liberties we prize and our rights we will maintain.

Iowans, the time is now: Caucus for Chris Dodd, because he, above all others, will use his presidency to not just maintain our rights, but restore and protect them. We know he will do that in 2009, because he's already doing it now, in 2007 and 2008.

So stand by your state's motto and please stand for Chris Dodd tonight.

In today's Iowa City Press-Citizen, there's a great letter to the editor in support of Chris Dodd's leadership to win a victory in the FISA fight last week.

Recently Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd won a great victory for the U.S. Constitution. Almost single-handedly, he prevented passage of a bill that would have granted blanket immunity to the Bush administration, and some of the largest companies in the nation, for spying on American citizens. We still don't know exactly what they did, but we do know that they took technology and legal authority to spy on foreigners, and abused them by spying on Americans.

This bill was not about spying on terrorists. The FISA Act of 1978 already gave the government broad powers to eavesdrop on suspected spies and terrorists.

These powers were expanded even further by the Patriot Act. The bill that was debated yesterday began as a simple technical fix to clarify how surveillance powers would apply to new technologies, like cell phones. But it became a vehicle for retroactive amnesty for the Bush administration, and its allies who exceeded their authority by eavesdropping on the phone calls and emails of ordinary, law-abiding Americans.

We have been presented with the false choice that we must give up some of our freedoms in order to gain security. But Dodd knows that in the long run, we can only be secure if we defend our freedoms.

The world has always looked to America as the well spring of freedom, and I'm supporting Dodd because he has done the most to protect our freedoms.

Dale Shultz
Iowa City

As we've endeavored to show throughout this campaign, restoring the Constitution and defending the rule of law are issues that Americans all around the country care deeply about. Literally everywhere I have gone on the campaign trail with Senator Dodd - Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Nevada, Florida, Michigan, Utah and more - people have asked him what he will do to restore the Constitution...what he will do to honor the balance of powers between the executive, legislative, and judicial branches...how he will treat our detainees...how he will handle conflicting intelligence reports. Everywhere we go, people ask for leadership that will restore America's moral authority and standing in the world by standing up for the rule of law here at home.

I say this in hopes that this brilliant letter to the editor can once again be offered up as proof for those that care that the Constitution is not an issue that only law professors and high school civics teachers care about. Instead, it strikes to the fabric of who we are as a nation and can surprise no one that so many people nationwide will be voting for the candidate who's stood up for the Constitution and who is getting results through principled leadership in the Senate...Chris Dodd.

The Boston Globe has an article by Charlie Savage - the journalist whose investigation first brought President Bush's use of signing statements to light - about the various positions by Democratic and Republican candidates on executive powers. Here are a few of the most direct answers to critically important questions that the tenure of the Bush administration has raised to date.

4. Under what circumstances, if any, would you sign a bill into law but also issue a signing statement reserving a constitutional right to bypass the law?

Never. If I thought it was unconstitutional, I would turn to the Courts, which is what our founding fathers expected and provided for in cases of Executive-Congressional differences.

5. Does the Constitution permit a president to detain US citizens without charges as unlawful enemy combatants?

No.

6. Does executive privilege cover testimony or documents about decision-making within the executive branch not involving confidential advice communicated to the president himself?

No.

What's remarkable, I think, is that Senator Dodd's dedication to upholding the Constitution and the balance of powers requires this sort of answer to these sorts of questions, though you won't see the GOP candidates or top Republican talking heads giving the same consideration to these issues. Standing up for the rule of law makes us more safe at home. We need a President who will stand up for these issues, even if it means rolling back some of the powers and practices used by the Bush administration in contravention to the Constitution and at the expense of the balance of powers between the executive, legislative, and judiciary branch.

You can read Senator Dodd's full response to the Globe's questionnaire here.

Emptywheel, Marty Lederman at Balkinization, The Anonymous Liberal, and Glenn Greenwald have more on the Globe's survey.

Majority Leader Harry Reid has just pulled the FISA bill from consideration in this session. It will be brought up at some point next month.

Without Senator Dodd's leadership today, it is safe to assume that retroactive immunity would have passed.

This is a great victory for the American people. His outspoken opposition to retroactive immunity and the Intelligence Committee's FISA bill made it impossible to move forward now. From a process standpoint, that took the persistent shadow of a Dodd filibuster on this legislative process, a "hold" against any legislation that included retroactive immunity, and today, a refusal to grant unanimous consent to rules of debate that would have made it harder to strip retroactive immunity from the Intel Committee's bill through the Dodd-Feingold Amendment. He brought along some of the Senate's most passionate voices -- Senator's Feingold, Kennedy, Boxer, Wyden, Brown and Bill Nelson joined him to stand up to the President today.

Throughout the day Senator Dodd stood on the Senate floor and spoke out against the Bush administration's abuse of executive powers. He spoke out against granting retroactive immunity for telecom companies who helped the Bush administration spy on Americans without warrant - noting that if we grant immunity now, we may never know the full extent of what happened behind closed doors and what arguments were used to justify warrantless surveillance.

For now, the FISA debate is over. It will come up again down the road, but for now everyone who supported Senator Dodd's leadership against retroactive immunity and supported his promise to filibuster should be proud of their work to defend the Constitution and the rule of law.

Jason Rosenbaum's weekly post on MyDD is up today and it's a great one.

The only candidate from either party that I would trust to shrink executive power is one who makes the Constitution central to his or her arguments, as returning to the Constitution ensures all areas of Bush's expansion are addressed.

The Constitution lies at the heart of Chris Dodd's appeal. He is most known in this campaign for his work on issues in the Senate such as restoring habeas corpus and fighting against telecom immunity. Both of these issues are rooted in the Constitutional argument, and for this reason, I believe, they have been Dodd's most successful to date.

Dodd has also specifically addressed the Constitution at a couple points in his campaign. He makes the very argument that the Constitution protects the country.

Go read Jason's whole piece on MyDD or at his regular home, The Seminal.