Very few lawmakers know when to get out, according to retiring Sen. Dodd

Precious few politicians know when to leave the world of politics, according to retiring Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.).

“We all know when to get into this business, or you wouldn’t be here if you didn’t,” Dodd said in an interview with The Hill in his office.

“I think very few know when to get out.”

Dodd, who describes life in the Senate and politics as “addictive in some ways,” chose to retire in January after enduring what he described as a “miserable” political situation.

The 30-year Senate incumbent faced poll numbers that suggested his party had a better chance of winning his seat without him. This followed a year of personal and political turbulence for the veteran senator, who led the healthcare bill through the Senate in December and is poised to complete action in the Senate this week on Wall Street reform, the second significant major legislative achievement of President Barack Obama’s first 16 months in office.

 As he captains what might be the final big bill of this Congress through the Senate, Dodd is watching colleagues try desperately to hang on in a year in which the public mood is down on Washington incumbents.

 Veteran GOP Sen. Bob Bennett (Utah), whom Dodd thinks might have been his partner on Wall Street reform in a different political environment, fell to Republican challengers backed by the Tea Party Movement last week.

 On Tuesday, Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.), Dodd’s partner in launching the Senate’s first “children’s caucus” in 1983, finds out his fate in Pennsylvania’s primary. Other colleagues, including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), could be unseated in the fall.

 Dodd, whose father served in the Senate, says he’ll likely have second thoughts about his own decision, given that he’s leaving work that he loves at a time when he still loves it. Still, he doesn’t sound like a man with regrets.

 “Oh, golly, with second thoughts, I’ll have them for a long time,” said Dodd, who said his two young children at home, ages 5 and 8, were a factor in — but not the reason for — his retirement.

“There will be moments next year when something will happen up here and I’ll be going, ‘I should be up there.’ That’s a pretty normal reaction, I think,” he said.

 “But it was the right decision for all the reasons,” Dodd continued. “And my instincts were right on the thing.”

Dodd, who turns 66 on May 27, has had an intense 18 months in the Senate filled with personal tragedies, legislative battles and political challenges.

Dodd’s sister died of cancer in July 2009, and his best friend in the Senate, Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), died a month later. Dodd himself developed cancer last summer, though he says his health is now “good.”

 All the while, Dodd said, “I was in a political life that was miserable going on.”

 Dodd’s decision to move his family to Iowa during his run for his party’s presidential nomination damaged him in Connecticut, and he ended up dropping out of the race after the Iowa caucuses in early 2008.

 

He was further hampered by reports that he had received loans under a “VIP” program from Countrywide Financial, even after a Senate Ethics Committee investigation found Dodd had not broken any rules and had not received loan terms better than those available to the general public.

 Dodd in the fall of 2008 helped craft the $700 billion bailout of the financial system, which some believe saved the financial system from ruin but is tremendously unpopular with the public. He included language in the stimulus bill in early 2009 that was designed to crack down on executive pay, but was criticized after employees of AIG received huge bonuses, creating another political storm for his campaign.

 Dodd stayed busy throughout the political ups and downs. With immigration reform and climate change legislation unlikely to move this year, Dodd will arguably be the senator most responsible for the two main domestic legislative achievements of this Congress: a financial regulatory overhaul and healthcare reform.

 The day the Senate approved the financial bailout, known as the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, the Senate also moved mental health parity legislation co-sponsored by Dodd that requires insurers to provide equivalent services for people suffering from mental illnesses as those suffering physical ailments. Dodd was also instrumental in moving the historic U.S.-India nuclear accord through the Senate that day.

 India’s prime minister told Dodd that politically, he never would have been able to ask the FBI to come to Mumbai to help investigate the terrorist attacks on that city were it not for the nuclear accord, Dodd said.

 Dodd said he thinks he still could have won election to a sixth term, though not easily.

 “I think I still could have won, but you know, I’ve always been leery about people who made predictions about political fortunes. But it just seemed time, you know?”

 He said another six years in the Senate would have been too long, and that too often politicians decide to stay in politics when they are running through the motions.

 “I like to control my life to some extent, and not enough people, I think, pause and say and ask themselves the questions. Too often it can become almost robotic, you know?” he said. “You’re in, and ‘Why not? I guess I’m running again.’ And someone else is organizing fundraisers … And the next thing you know, the ball is rolling and no one ever pauses and says, ‘Wait a minute, is that really what you want to do?’ ”

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