Iowa Independent conducted a one-on-one interview with Democratic presidential candidate Chris Dodd of Connecticut this weekend on his campaign bus in western Iowa. Douglas Burns of The Carroll Daily Times Herald and Iowa Independent spent time talking with Dodd as he traveled from Carroll to Council Bluffs with musician Paul Simon. The legendary singer-songwriter helped the veteran senator draw large crowds at several Iowa venues in recent days. Click below to read the interview.
Iowa Independent: One question I wanted to get to right away. Iraq is something you didn’t get too much time to touch on today in Carroll. In rural America we have a disproportionate share of people shouldering this burden in Iraq. Most of us are only one or two degrees of separation from people who are serving. What are your thoughts on that?
Senator Dodd: The Democrats and now many more Republicans think the policy is a failed policy. We are less secure, more vulnerable, more isolated, as a result of this assumption that militarily there is an answer in Iraq. Here are people talking about how they care about people on the ground. I was trying to get better body armor for guys that were losing their lives because it wasn’t adequate.
Iowa Independent: Why do you think a disproportionate number of people from rural America are serving? Are there less opportunities out here so we are forced into it, or are we just more patriotic than the rest of you?
Senator Dodd: I think it’s a combination of things. One of the difficulties – . I was looking the other day at the number of hog farmers in Iowa going from 42,000 to 6,000 in less than 20 years. I was talking to a nice couple. He’s a farmer, and he has three daughters. One’s a nurse. One’s a teacher, and one’s just finishing high school. They have 1,500 acres of corn. He didn’t say so, but my assumption is he’s going to have a harder time. Maybe one of his daughters will marry someone who will want to continue doing it.
But I wonder how many of these families are watching children who decide that life of being on the farm in rural America … they’re going to want something else. The military becomes a way of getting an education, getting around to college, a community college and a way to step out and maybe see something. All those reasons people have given over the years.
Plus, I think there is a sense of patriotism that’s been more associated with rural America than urban America. I think there are those who have been associated with the idea that if you redeploy our troops out of Iraq, that somehow puts our soldiers at risk. Having served in the National Guard and The Reserves as well as the Peace Corps back in the 1960s, no one’s going to pull the wool over my eyes.
We’re not leaving any soldier, sailor, airman, marine at risk because we stopped funding our military presence in Iraq. In seven or eight months we can redeploy very effectively and safely and frankly, I think it’s the only way there’s any hope in Iraq.
Iowa Independent: The composition of the crowd in Carroll was different in terms of age and younger than what a lot of Iowa is because Mr. Simon was here. You are familiar with the decades-long story of the brain-drain here. Do you have ideas about rural revitalization, of what we can do to get more young people here, or should we just leave them alone and let the buffalo roam again?
Senator Dodd: You are doing a lot of it already as this state goes through this transition. You’ll always be a strong agricultural state. It may be done differently, and there are a lot of issues associated with that. The subject of energy is a potent issue. We love a challenge in this country. I think this could be exciting. War and peace and hunger and other issues are things you want to constantly battle at, but I think we all understand that we can make a difference and slow it down and stop it in some areas but to actually eliminate it entirely is probably not going to happen.
We can actually fundamentally alter the way we power our automobiles, our appliances, our businesses within our lifetime. I think that’s an exciting thing for Americans to get involved in. I think Iowa can play a tremendous role in that.
There’s a manufacturing piece to this. As you move away from fossil fuels and the dependency on foreign oil the opportunity of building the fuel cells, the turbines, are going to be opportunity. Plus the broadband. I’m a big advocate of bringing access to broadband to rural America. Bring opportunity to rural America.
Iowa Independent: I read several articles on your trip with Mr. Simon, and I never really discovered how you became friends and how you got connected.
Senator Dodd: Paul really wanted to come on this trip. His first concert he thought (if) he and (Art) Garfunkel were ever known by anybody (it) was in Davenport, Iowa. He just loves the stability of it, the soundness of it, the steadiness of it. I chaired a number of these first elections ever in Eastern Bloc countries so I chaired the Interparliamentary Group, along with a former prime minister of Ireland to observe and participate in the first free elections in Czechoslovakia.
So I was looking around. Who could you bring this that would bring an interesting perspective? If this was going to be — with all due respect — a bunch of people in public life, that’s OK. There were some people who would do that. But why not some people who would bring a different set of eyes to a process. A good friend of mine was Loren Michaels, the producer of “Saturday Night Live.” Loren and I talked on almost a weekly basis. Loren said, ‘Would you mind if I brought Paul along?” And I said, ‘Sure.’ And that was 24 years ago. It was a great trip. We just became good friends over the years. I’ve done work with him for clinics that go into communities where they don’t have doctors to go into neighborhoods or communities where they don’t have doctors to do the vaccinations, the check-ups and so forth. This is a quiet commitment to children’s health. So he’s a very decent guy. He wanted to come here. He has this thing about Iowa.
Iowa Independent: We had the commutation last week of Scooter Libby’s prison sentence. Hillary Clinton made some comments about it but as soon as she made those comments there was the immediate analogy to Bill Clinton and his pardons. Is that one of her issues? Is that something that ends up being troubling if she’s the nominee, that when issues arise, like the Libby commutation, that people are going to be able to point to her husband’s presidency and take some of the steam out of the current argument?
Senator Dodd: I’m sure they’re going do that. That’s natural enough. They are going to try any time you say something to find some reason to push you back. I think in every case where President Clinton pardoned someone they had served or done whatever their sentences were. The pardons were basically after the fact rather than excusing them from whatever the sentence required of them. That’s a distinction you have to take some time to make and if it takes a long time to make you’re probably not going to listen to it.
Iowa Independent: You have almost served for 30 years in the U.S. Senate. You have been one of the more powerful men in the nation for almost three decades. You’ve had an opportunity and you’ve had access to the levels of power and to have your ideas actually be turned into legislation. Why do you need more power? Why not just be satisfied? You already have other Democratic presidential candidates out here carrying similar messages to you. Why not stay in Washington, use the experience you have in Washington, your foreign policy experience and use the position rather than coming out here and spending a Saturday talking to me? Wouldn’t it make more sense to talk to world leaders or other people that you have the access to?
Senator Dodd: I enjoy my work in the Senate. I’m not tired of the Senate or disappointed. I’ve done a lot of things I care deeply about. I can spend seven years, three presidents and two vetoes to get a family and medical leave bill, or I can be president of the United States and make it happen.
The ability to really create a change in direction, a change in mood in the country, to have an immediate influence I think around the world, in terms of the United States reasserting its historic role in leadership, is not going to be done by a senator or even a collection of senators.
The one office that alters the direction of our country is the Oval Office. I decided, look, I’ve got a lot to say. I’ve got the experience on how to do this. I’ve built those relationships over the years. We haven’t had a president that’s been a part of the major settings where decisions have to get made.
Every president who came in the last few years, whether it’s Ronald Reagan, George Bush, Bill Clinton, have had to spend two or three years getting to know people that they have to sit down and work with the next day. I could literally have the dinner the night of Jan. 21 and have Chuck Grassley and Tom Harkin and Ted Kennedy and Trent Lott, Ted Stevens, John McCain, Nancy Pelosi — I’ve known them all for 25 or 30 years.
That’s an advantage I think people sense has been missing. I’m 63. I ain’t going to do this twice. Maybe once, let’s try this one, having tried the others.
Iowa Independent: Day to day out here ,one of the main issues is consumer debt. A popular radio show out here is the Christian talk-radio show, “The Dave Ramsey Show.” And his whole focus is debt, debt, debt. A lot of reason for the debt is the high credit-card fees and so forth.
Senator Dodd: I’m the author of all the legislation to change that. I’d come on his show and talk because I’ve tried for 10 years and I had hearings already this year on credit-card debt. Merely changing from minority (the Senate) to majority all of a sudden magically I have credit-card companies deciding that universal default, maybe they better stop doing that where you didn’t pay your utility bill and all of a sudden your credit-card fees went up or the double-cycle billing thing where you have $1,000 debt and you’ve paid off $500 of it last month and they still charge you interest on the $1,000.
I opposed the bankruptcy bill because it was strictly designed to keep you in debt and make it impossible for you to get out of it. He (Ramsey) is absolutely right. The average home in this country has $9,300 worth of revolving debt, most of it credit-card debt. I’m not opposed to credit cards, but these companies specifically go after poor people today, knowing they can never pay off those monthly balances. In fact if you pay off the monthly balance every month, you know what they call you in the parlance of the credit-card industry? A deadbeat. You and I are their worst nightmares as customers because they don’t make a nickel off us.
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