The Hawkeye: Dodd Covers Vets, Volunteerism

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The Hawkeye: Dodd Covers Vets, Volunteerism

By KILEY MILLER

On the eve of Independence Day, presidential hopeful Sen. Chris Dodd promised to introduce language next week into a defense authorization bill to end the war in Iraq.

"I think we ought to begin redeploying our troops out of Iraq this evening if we could," the Connecticut Democrat told a veteran-heavy crowd of about 40 people at VFW Post 10102 in Burlington.

Dodd's plan, mirroring a proposal put forth in the Senate earlier this year, would complete the pull-out by March 31 of next year.

This was the senator's second appearance in Burlington in as many months, following a public forum he hosted in early May.

Little has changed for his Iowa campaign in the interim. He drew less than one percent support in the most recent statewide poll of likely Democratic caucusgoers, leaving him far behind frontrunners such as U.S. Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, who also was in the area Tuesday.

Dodd hit town in a giant blue bus with red and white detailing on the opening leg of an 18-town "River to River" tour that ends Saturday. Music superstar Paul Simon will join him later in the week.

At the VFW hall, he rattled through a list of policy initiatives ranging from universal health care in the country to expansion of the AmeriCorps program to 1 million volunteers.

A former Army Reservist, he described the venue as an appropriate place to be around the Fourth of July. He also took aim at President George Bush for problems with the care and support of military veterans, focusing particularly on the poor conditions found at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

"I'll never allow to happen to veterans what's happened under this administration," he said.

Dodd is 63 years old, yet he has two small daughters. One was born just two days after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. In both visits to Burlington, he has used that juxtaposition to suggest he has a unique perspective on foreign affairs and the need for effective diplomacy.

A 26-year-veteran of the Senate, Dodd also boasts Peace Corps experience, and his time serving with the organization in the Dominican Republic has influenced his massive pro-volunteerism package. Along with broadening AmeriCorps, he wants to elevate the Corporation for National Service to cabinet-level status, double the size of the Peace Corps, establish a "Rapid Response Reserve Corps" to help during disasters, give seniors incentives to serve and offer tax credits of up to $1,000 per worker for employers who provide paid time off for community service.

A recent article in Newsweek said Dodd had taken the service debate "to the next level." On the campaign trail, the issue allows the senator to reference a Democratic patriarch (he was inspired by President John F. Kennedy to join the Peace Corps) and hammer at Bush for urging citizens after 9/11 to go shopping.

"We need a leader who is hopeful and optimistic about the future," Dodd said.

Perhaps Tuesday's most dramatic moment came when Des Moines County Democratic Party Chairwoman Stacey Wachter asked Dodd, "What can we do about Dick Cheney?"

After a joking suggestion that he could not say how he really felt, Dodd launched into a long condemnation of what "this crowd," meaning the Bush Administration, "has done to the Constitution."

The son of a Nuremberg prosecutor, Dodd suggested part way through that a belief in the right to a fair trial and protection from unlawful imprisonment were part of his DNA.

He then pulled a small bound copy of the Constitution from his back pocket. Holding it up, he proclaimed that his first act as president, if necessary, would be an executive order to "restore the Constitution of the United States."

The declaration brought a loud round of clapping.

Dodd will need more than applause, though, if he hopes to mount a comeback before the Iowa caucuses in January. Momentum is against him. He raised just $3.25 million in the second quarter of the year, one tenth of Obama's total.

Rollan Simonson, for one, worries how important that figure has become.

The Burlington resident tries to hear every candidate who comes to town, both Republicans and Democrats, and he walked out of the VFW hall on Tuesday impressed by Dodd.

"It's encouraging to see somebody who can speak in complete sentences," he said.

Asked how the Connecticut senator could turn things around, though, all Simonson could suggest was for Dodd to continue "pressing the flesh."

"Money's still a big issue for the candidates," he said. "It seems to influence the voter more than it should."

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