Obama vetting telco immunity foe Dodd in VP search Nick Juliano

Published: Friday July 11, 2008





Print This Email This Barack Obama is considering picking Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) as his vice president, in a move that could calm rocky waters with the Democratic candidate's progressive base. Obama's campaign has asked Dodd to turn over information as part of its VP vetting process, the Associated Press reported Friday. "There's been some inquiries, yeah," Dodd said. "They ask for a lot of stuff. I'll leave it there." The news came three days after Obama backtracked on his earlier promise to support a filibuster of a new surveillance law; Dodd was instrumental in opposing the law, an update to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Dodd became something of a hero to progressive activists because of his efforts to fix the FISA law -- introducing an amendment to strip a telecom immunity provision and mounting a nearly 10-hour filibuster that scuttled the bill in the Senate last year. Once Dodd exited the primaries in January, many of his supporters seemed to back Obama, who echoed Dodd's criticism of President Bush's warrantless wiretapping program and promised to vote against any bill that let the phone companies who facilitated it off the hook. When Obama indicated he would break that promise, tens of thousands of his supporters organized on the candidate's social networking site urging him to change his mind. They were outraged when he refused. Very few have indicated that they won't vote for Obama because of his FISA shift, but the seemingly politically motivated move has sapped some of the enthusiasm from Obama's base. Whether a Dodd spot on the ticket could fix that remains to be seen. Dodd, 64, could complement Obama in other ways, too. A five-term senator, he has a lengthy foreign policy resume and is a fluent Spanish speaker with particular interest in Latin American affairs. However, he recently has struggled with allegations he received discount mortgages from Countrywide, a key player in the subprime loan scandal; Dodd chairs the Senate Banking Committee. Obama has stoked speculation about his vice presidential search this week when he made an unscheduled apparent visit to one of his search committee members, Eric Holder, and traveled to New York with Caroline Kennedy, another search team member. Dodd's name has been absent from most speculation about who Obama would choose. Amid speculation about potential vice presidential candidates, some have refused to comment while others have been coy. On Wednesday, Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri shook her head and cut off a question about whether Obama or his team had asked her for documents to review. "I'm not going to talk about it," she said. Responding to the same question, Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius issued a statement, saying: "The decision and timetable for the best person to help Sen. Obama lead the country is entirely up to him. All of us who support Sen. Obama have been asked to direct questions about his choice for vice president to the campaign." A few others indicated they hadn't been approached, including Delaware Sen. Joe Biden. He said he is not seeking the job but also indicated he couldn't turn it down if asked. Still, he said: "I made it clear to him and everybody else, I never worked for anybody in my life. I got here when I was 29. I never had a boss. I don't know how I'd handle it." Freshman Sen. Ken Salazar of Colorado said he had not been approached. Recently, others thought to be on Obama's list have indicated they lack interest in the job. Virginia Sen. Jim Webb issued a statement Monday that said he had told Obama he intended to remain in the Senate and "under no circumstances will I be a candidate for vice president." With wire reports