Support for term limits.

Here in Connecticut we have the quintessential evidence for term limits. Christopher Dodd was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1981. His latest term expires in 2010. While I am sure much can be said about his prior terms, it's this last term that truly make the point for term limits.

Some of the major faux pas committed by the Senator who is supposed to be representing the people of Connecticut include the following:
1) Changing his residency from Connecticut to Iowa during the course of, in my opinion, his incredibly narcissistic and pointless run for the Democratic nomination for President in 2008. Changing his residency to another state should have required his resignation as Senator from Connecticut. Connecticut needs to change its laws in this respect (and also grant its citizens the right of recall, but that is a topic for another day) so that another Senator does not pull such a disrespectful stunt.
2) The "sweetheart" mortgage rate he obtained from Countrywide at a time when others were getting no such "deals".
3) Dodd's re-election campaign accepting $162,100 from AIG employees and their spouses after he sent out an email in November, 2006 requesting support for his re-election campaign. Ultimately, Dodd accepted $238,418 from AIG employees and their spouses. "http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/dodd_aig_contributions/2009/03/30/197552.html
4) Dodd adding a provision into legislation in February, 2009, which ultimately resulted in the allowance of $218 million in bonuses to be paid to AIG executives, after AIG had already received billions of dollars of taxpayer money from TARP. Note: AIG received another 29.8 Billion dollars of taxpayer money yesterday, April 21, 2009. http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D97N4P580.htm

As head of the Senate Banking Committee, I have to ask, where was Senator Dodd while the financial and insurance industries were heading into a, and actually beginning to, melt-down? I know he wasn't asnwering my questions during that time.

I certainly don't understand why it consistently takes his office nine months to respond to my written concerns with a form letter that makes so little effort to address the issues raised, it's clear no one in the office truly reads what a constituent writes. By the time the nine months go by, usually no action can be taken on the issue. Perhaps that's the Senator's plan. I can say, however, that Senator Lieberman's office is very quick to respond with it's own vague and generally unresponsive form letters - usually within a matter of days.

On April 17, 2009, the News Times published a story indicating that for the first quarter of 2009, Dodd raised, $4,250 from just FIVE Connecticut residents. Dodd also accepted $604,745 from almost 400 individuals not living in Connecticut. http://www.newstimes.com/ci_12159339?IADID=Search-www.newstimes.com-www.newstimes.com To me, this simple story speaks volumes. It tells me that the people of Connecticut have withdrawn their support from the Senator; that the Senator is making little effort with the people of Connecticut; and that the Senator continues to prefer to deal with people and interests outside the state.

Needless to say, Senator Dodd has done nothing this past term to earn my vote, nor will he get it. I respectfully suggest that, if he wishes to return to the Senate, he return to Iowa and run there. Perhaps he can garner more than 60 votes there this time. http://content.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/results.aspx?sp=ia@oi=p&rti=e
As far as I am concerned, it's time to impose term limits on Senator Dodd.