Leading has benefits.

Senator Dodd's campaign communications director Hari Sevugan tells me that $150,000 in small contributions have poured into Dodd's campaign in the past 24 hours, since his announcement that he will put a hold on--and may even filibuster--a foreign intelligence surveillance bill approved yesterday by the Senate Intelligence Committee. Dodd objects to a provision that would grant immunity to the telecommunications companies that turned over their customers' phone and e-mail records to the government's warrantless surveillance program. The companies have been hit with 40 pending lawsuits charging them with privacy violation. Dodd has raised more small-dollar contributions in the last 24 hours than he did in the previous month. Sevugan also says the number of visits to his website is up tenfold, as is the number of people registering their e-mail addresses there.

If Obama had done this, he would've pulled in far more, yeah. He pulls in far more just by sneezing. But Obama is in another plane of existence. For Dodd, this is pretty big.

And Hillary? Well, apparently her position on retroactive immunity for law-breaking phone companies is still being focus group tested, so it'll be a while before we know where she stands on the issue.

Meanwhile, despite the idiotic blatherings of the Washington Post's Shailagh Murray, fighting this bill would be worth far more to Dodd's campaign than a week pretending to give a crap about some Iowan's prize hog.

Shit, all the campaigning in the world hasn't put Dodd on the map. This thing -- you know, fighting to restore our tattered Constitution -- very well might.

On the web: Chris Dodd for President