Senator Dodd (D) to retire

[Fate]

Harry Byrd Jr/Sr from Virginia?

I wiki-cheated.

[Admiral Yi]

Nice.

[Gups]

This is like Kennedy deciding that he wouldn't run, being so low in pols and among voters. A stalward among voters, he'd have to have come to quite a change to be so low. As for Dodd, same thing. His father was a Congressman too, the family has been a major factor in CT politics for probably half a century.

I find the dynasties the most weird thing about American politics.  The thing I just don't really understand at all.  I mean just looking at the last 50 years you've had a lot of the Kennedy-Shriver-Schwarzenegger family, the Rockefellers, the Bidens, the Daleys, the Romneys, the Bushes, the Murkowskis, you have two Uddall brothers in Congress who were the cousins of a Senator (recently lost his election).  Prior to that there's the Roosevelts and the Tafts and so on.

I mean we've got a Queen and a few hereditary Lords left but they've no power.  The closest examples I can think of in the Commons are Tony and Hilary Benn - though being Tony Benn's son certainly didn't help Hilary.  There's the Miliband brothers but again they didn't do well because their father was a respected Marxist intellectual

Herbert Morrison/Peter Mandelson

Generations (4? 5?) of Churchills

The point still stands though. I think it is because party is so much more important than personality in British politics. There's far less regionalism as well, unsurprisingly since we are so much smaller.

[Sheilbh]

Herbert Morrison/Peter Mandelson

Generations (4? 5?) of Churchills

True enough.

[MadImmortalMan]

I think it is because party is so much more important than personality in British politics. There's far less regionalism as well, unsurprisingly since we are so much smaller.

Good point.


As for Dodd---the guy was going to lose. I wouldn't be surprised if the leadership asked him to weigh his options and do what's best for the party and the country. Now someone unsullied can run.