In his farewell address after 30 years in the U.S. Senate, Chris Dodd called Tuesday for a new level of civility in an era of hyper-partisanship and said that Republicans and Democrats can pass good legislation only by working together.
Declaring that politics in Washington, D.C. is "completely dysfunctional,'' Dodd said the incoming senators who will take office in January will be facing a political world that "seems to favor speculation over analysis and conflict over consensus.''
"Intense partisan polarization has raised the stakes in every debate and on every vote, making it difficult to lose with grace and nearly impossible to compromise without cost,'' Dodd said in his prepared remarks. "Americans' distrust of politicians provides compelling incentives for senators to distrust each other, to disparage this very institution, and disengage from the policy making process.''
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky described Dodd's speech as "one of the most important speeches in the history of the Senate.'' He said he had never heard "anyone so cogently point out'' the important matters facing the body.
A longtime student of Senate history, Dodd spoke of his love for the august body. That love started back in his childhood when he watched his father, Thomas Dodd, on the Senate floor. In fact, he stood at the same desk for the past 30 years - the desk that his father had used for 12 years until his electoral defeat in November 1970.
"As a 14-year-old boy, I sat in the family gallery of this chamber, watching as my father took the oath of office as a new senator,'' Dodd said at the start of his lengthy speech. "A few years later, in 1962, I sat where these young men and women sit today, serving as a Senate page. John F. Kennedy was our president, and Lyndon Johnson presided over this body.''
After briefly discussing his career and thanking his family, Dodd moved on to the broader theme of his love for the Senate.
On the campaign trail in Connecticut, Dodd was asked once by a Hartford Courant reporter about being one of the longest-serving senators in state history. Off the top of his head, Dodd started talking about Orville H. Platt, a Republican from Meriden who served in the U.S. Senate from 1879 through 1905. He also talked about Joseph R. Hawley, a Hartford Republican who served for 24 years until 1905.