Senator Dodd has always put the people of Connecticut first in his job, and on important Democratic Party matters he has always put the party first as he is doing today. Some may disagree, but we have been lucky to have him in Washington. We’re losing a great wealth of experience when he leaves office next year.

Here’s his note to supporters:

Dear Lon,

Today I announced that after 35 years of representing the people of Connecticut in the United States Congress, I will not be a candidate for re-election this November.

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I want to express my deepest gratitude to the people of Connecticut for the remarkable privilege of being elected eight times over the past four decades to our national assembly.

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You have honored me beyond words with your confidence.

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Let me quickly add that there have been times when my positions and actions have caused some of you to question that confidence. I regret that, but it is equally important that you know I never wavered in my determination to do the best job for our state and nation. I love my job as your Senator, I always have, and still do. However, this past year has raised some challenges that insisted I take stock of my life.

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Over the past 12 months, I have managed four major pieces of legislation through Congress; served as Chair and acting Chair of two major Senate Committees, placing me at the center of the two most importance issues of our time — health care and reform of financial services; lost a beloved sister in July and in August — Ted Kennedy; battled cancer over the summer; and in the midst of all this, found myself in the toughest political shape of my career.

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Now let me be clear, I am very aware of my present political standing here at home; but it is equally clear that any certain prediction about an election victory or defeat nearly a year from now, would be absurd.

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Strange as it may sound, I’m not confident I would be standing here today making this announcement if these situations had not occurred. None of these events or circumstances either individually or collectively is the cause of my decision not to seek re-election.

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Yet together these challenges have given me pause, and to take stock, and ask the question that too few of us in elected public life ever do — why am I running?

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On a cold morning two weeks ago tomorrow I asked myself that very question.

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On the early frigid dawn of December 24th, Christmas Eve, with snow piled high along the streets of our nation’s Capitol, I cast one of the most important, if not the most important votes of my years in the Senate — a bill to fundamentally reform the health care system of our country.

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An hour later I was standing on the Virginia hillside at Arlington Cemetery, where Ted Kennedy rests, along with his brothers in eternity, as he is in history, wishing I could have seen the look in Teddy’s eyes as the Senate took that historic step only an hour before. I thought about the dozens of fine public servants, Democrats and Republicans, who have joined me in serving Connecticut over the course of my career at the local, state and national level.

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I thought about the countless Connecticut families — ordinary people with extraordinary courage and spirit, whose lives have touched me, and whose stories have profoundly affected my decisions in the Senate.

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I thought about the dozens of patriotic Senators with whom I have had the privilege of serving in an institution I dearly love. I have been a Connecticut Senator for 30 years. I’m proud of the job I’ve done and the results delivered.

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But none of us are irreplaceable.

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None of us are indispensible.

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Those who think otherwise are dangerous.

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The work to make our nation a more perfect union began long before I was elected to the Senate, and it will go on long after I’m gone. Our country is a work in progress. And I am confident it always will be.

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That is what I thought about as I stood on that hillside in Arlington on Christmas Eve morning.

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That is what I’ve talked about with Jackie over this holiday season.

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And that is how I came to the conclusion that, in the long sweep of American history, there are moments for each elected public servant to step aside and let someone else step up.

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This is my moment to step aside.

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There will be time to reflect in more detail on the years I’ve spent in public service.

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There will be time to celebrate victories, mourn setbacks, share laughs and memories, and to thank profusely the talented, tireless, and numerous staffers, many of whom are here today, who have made my Senate work possible.

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But that time is not now.

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My service is not over.

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I still have one year left on my contract with the people of Connecticut.

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One year from this week, our state will have a new Senator. In the meantime, we have important work to do.

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A few closing thoughts.

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I believe in bipartisan solutions, but I also believe you only achieve those results with vibrant, robust, and civil partisan debate.

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I am a Democrat and very proud of my party’s contributions to the vitality and strength of America.

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I would never have had the opportunity to serve in the Congress had I not had the support and backing of my political party over the years.

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I appreciate the passionate party activists who have never faltered in their support of my efforts.

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And lastly I want to say thank you to my family for their tolerance of yet another generation of our family in the political arena. I am especially indebted to Jackie for her fierce loyalty, unyielding commitment to fairness, and her unlimited capacity of empathy for the needs of others.

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She has been my anchor to windward in these stormy political waters.

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Now there is nothing more pathetic than a politician who announces they are only leaving public life to spend more time with their family.

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The result of this announcement today will, I hope, create that opportunity — but it is not the reason for my decision.

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I am a very late arrival to fatherhood, and I am told repeatedly how rapidly these young children — Grace who is 8 and Christina who is 4 — will grow up.

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So while these young ladies are not the reason for my decision — they will be an incredible benefit of my choice. On this, the 6th of January, the Epiphany, 2010, I am still driven by the same passions that motivated me to try my hand at politics so many years ago.

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Just as I’ve encouraged the people of Connecticut, I am looking to the future with a spirit of optimism and confidence.

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Finally, once again, thank you for the opportunity you’ve given me to serve.

Is the healthcare bill really 1900 pages? To quote a famous government official, it all depends on what your definition of a page is.

As with everything in government, things that we are accustomed to out in the world don’t actually work the same way in government.

When most of us boot up Microsoft Word, we’re given a 12 point font and an 8.5 x 11 inch page that has one inch margins top, bottom, left, and right. When the bill printers in the capitol print a bill, it’s on an 8.5 x 11 inch paper, but nearly triple spaced, huge fonts, and a margin of 2 inches on the right and 1.75 inches on the left, with no more than 25 lines of text per page. See a random page from the healthcare bill below and click here to see it full size:

So if the bill was placed in a word processor that you and I use every day, what would it look like? This morning I embarked on two experiments. The first was to paste the bill unformatted into a text editor. The resulting document? 206 pages.

But to be more realistic I went to the printer friendly display on the Library of Congress’ Thomas Site, saved it out as html, and opened it in Microsoft Word. The result? Only 506 pages.

John Boehner sure did kill a lot of trees unnecessarily to make his point didn’t he? Just another example of the twisted facts and mass hysteria some are inciting to block a bill designed to help people.

Tonight (Wednesday, April 22nd) I am hosting a roundtable discussion at the University to talk about how young voters are becoming increasingly more influential in elections at all levels of government.  We have a great panel and I hope you can join us for this interesting conversation.

Here are the details:

WHAT ― Political experts will examine the impact of the youth vote on the 2008 Presidential election during a panel discussion at the University of Hartford. They will also look into the trend of more young people participating in the political process.

Panelists include 100th District State Rep. Matthew Lesser (D, Middletown), Mary McClelland, deputy political director of Rock the Vote, and Matt Blocker, director of the University’s Center for Community Service.  Bilal Sekou, an associate professor of political science at the University, will moderate the discussion.

WHEN ― Wednesday, April 22, at 7:30 p.m.

WHERE ― Suisman Lounge, Gengras Student Union, University of Hartford, 200 Bloomfield Ave., West Hartford

Many of us here in Connecticut often take for granted just how well our state and municipal road crews clear the roadways no matter what the size of the storm. These hard working men and women often work through the night in nasty weather conditions to keep our roads safe and operating smoothly.

One only needs to look at how poorly some other states deal with the snow and ice to appreciate just how great a job crews in Connecticut do.

So the next time you see a tired snow plow driver, thank them for their work.  I’m sure they don’t hear that often enough.

President Obama is gearing up to fight the special interests who received tens of billions in dollars in taxpayer subsidies from the Bush Administration.

They will fight dirty with half-truths and downright lies just as they did during the stimulus debate.

For those of you on Facebook, I created a new group to help get fight the false rhetoric.  The big oil, insurance, and banking industries have a lot of taxpayer subsidies to lose, and they will spend millions to keep them – a drop in the bucket compared to what they were getting from the prior administration.

Let’s stand together to help fight the false rhetoric by using this group as a rapid response network. Get your friends to join and let’s work together to set the record straight any time we see one of these false statements on Facebook.

The above video is an excerpt from President Obama’s February 28th weekly address.

Click here to view in high definition on Facebook.

Rumors were swirling that the President would not make it to the Eastern Ball until well after 2 a.m., and with an early flight in the morning we decided that we just couldn’t stay up that late and still be functional enough to get ourselves home and back to work.

Just as we were heading out we ran into some friends and were talking maybe forty feet away from the stage that President Obama was due to appear presumably much later in the evening. To our surprise the lights went on, the flags came out, and the next thing we knew we had one of the best seats in the house for his remarks to the attendees. I especially like how the cell phones and cameras sprouted up from the crowd as he took to the stage.

I’ll get some pictures up a little later tonight. I didn’t have my fancy camera with me so I will do the best I can with my point and shoot’s output.

What a day today was!  It’s now nearly 3 a.m. and I need to get some sleep ahead of my flight home tomorrow, but I did want to get the big day’s photo gallery up for you to enjoy.  Click here to see it!

The crowds were overwhelming at times, but it wasn’t too bad considering there were well over a million people crammed onto the Capitol lawn and the Mall..  We did heed the advice of many and got on line at just before 6:00 a.m. which turned out to be a very wise decision.  Once we were inside, it was stunning to see the density of the crowd both on the Capitol lawn and across the way on the Mall increase almost exponentially as we drew closer to the 11 a.m. start time.

One thing the television coverage could not capture was the feeling of the event..  Feelings like experiencing the sound of a million people behind us on the mall singing the Star Spangled Banner in unison, hearing their roaring cheers and applause when President Obama took the oath of office, or seeing what must have been a hundred thousand waving American flags along on the mall.  Every so often I’d turn around and just take a look at a sea of humanity so large it was impossible to see it all within my field of vision.

Tonight I attended one of the official inaugural balls, and we had a relatively up close and personal greeting from the President and Vice President.  Although I did not bring my obnoxiously large camera to the event I did manage to grab some photos and vidoes with my point and shoot.  I’ll post those sometime tomorrow.

Now begins the task of actually getting back to Dupont Circle. This should be interesting .