Opinion: But did Dodd feel her pain?

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Have you ever heard a legislator drone on about his/her accomplishments in those funny legislative chambers with all the arcane rules?

They tend to do that a lot when they’re outside those chambers and running for another office. Take Iowa’s third Sen. Chris Dodd, who’s moved his family all the way from Connecticut to live fulltime in Iowa because of, you guessed it, his desire to win Democratic delegates in the Jan. 3 Iowa caucus.

There he was in Ames the other day, according to a delightful account in the Des Moines Register, going on about his 33 years of legislative achievements involving children. And on. And on. And on. And on. In the crowd of about 60 were 10 local firefighters supporting Dodd, including Karen Tapper, who’d brought her daughter, Lexie, along.

And on. And on. And on, he went.

Dodd had been talking for what seemed like four years to the fidgeting four-year-old Lexie. It had been actually 26 minutes. But finally Lexie couldn’t take it anymore.

‘Mommy,’ she cried out for all to hear. ‘It’s taking too long. I have to go really bad!’

--Andrew Malcolm