. >> chris dodd, former peace corps volunteer. >> chris dodd, very nice guy, very fun-loving guy.i mean, very sort of, you know, outspoken liberal. he was -- he had this great legislative last hurrah in 2010, where he -- you know, he co-authored dodd/frank. he was one of the chief engineers of the health care bill. i remember talking to him when he announced he wasn't going to run. he got in some trouble -- was very, very unpopular back in connecticut. he got in some trouble with a mortgage broker. >> he took a loan, i think, from countrywide -- >> countrywide. >> in the housing -- >> in the housing -- >> bubble. >> right, at a time when he was, you know, presumably, you know, chairman of the banking committee, could have been very involved in that. but also was running for president in a fairly quixotic -- >> with a lot of money from -- >> a lot of money from wall street. you know, and he basically decamped to iowa for a few months in 2008. chris dodd, i remember having lunch with him in the senate dining room and saying, "so what are you going to do now?" and it was a triumphant

and chris dodd is part of the motion picture association of america. it not only guarantees that his book will be made into a movie, but that senator dodd is played by somebody really cool. [laughter] i hope so anyway. [laughter] >> senator dodd served in the united states congress representing connecticut for 36 years. thirty years in the united states senate. he is also the co-author in areas of education and financial services and foreign policy and election reform. he played a decisive role in writing the health care reform bill and he was co-author of the dodd-frank wall street act, which is what we are talking about today. he is a senior fellow in government studies at the brookings brookings institute and he is director of government studies between 1987 and 1999, before that he was executive director of the american political science association. he is the perfect commentator today because his most recent book is called it is even worse than it looks, how the american constitutional system collided with extremists. and i cannot wait for him to b

for a while, chris dodd was single and you just have to be careful, new jersey, however, i think he's quantity, i think from this point guard he's certainly under a lot of scrutiny and whoever he is with will be, too. >> lin sweet, thanks so much for your time this morning. we appreciate >> it thank you. >>> coming up, bill karins and richard lui will be here for "first look." stories that we're talking about now. my mother made the best toffee in the world. it's delicious. so now we've turned her toffee into a business. my goal was to take an idea and make it happen. i'm janet long and i formed my toffee company through legalzoom. i never really thought i would make money doing what i love. [ robert ] we created legalzoom to help people start their business and launch their dreams. go to legalzoom.com today and make your business dream a reality. at legalzoom.com we put the law on your side. it's a reality check. i had my reality check when i'd be sitting there with my friends who had their verizon phones and i'd be sitting there like "mine's still loading!" i couldn't get email. i c

. >> you write in there for instance, chris dodd, a senator then, now works for the professional picture association he wouldn't lobby. >> he did. now he's head of the most powerful lobbying organizations in washington. what it's emblem mattic of was this fuel class. it sort of described the permanence of washington, the fact that people come here -- they almost always say now a lot of elected officials go on to become lobbyists and consultants and frank is good inside the beltway. >> here's some of the exposure when you had already over the first couple of weeks of your published book. let's watch this. >> this town -- >> wow, mark. >> mark liebowitz. >> "this town". >> you described dc is overfed by self-love and overplayed by big media, fueled by big money. >> and a human ladle in the local self-celebration buffet. wow, mark. >> all kinds of reaction to "this town," a washington takedown. mark leibowitz and the town. hypocrisy, thy name is duh. >> there's no index. we can't find out what's going on. people are up in arms about it. >> this book is so widely anticipated, we're seeing th

senator chris dodd said when all of this was going on that president aristeed had gotten himself crosswaysd interests in haiti. that the people who wanted the money, who had enormous sums of money -- the canadian ambassador there said he'd never seen such wealth all concentrated in haiti in white hands, a haiti that looks very much like the old south africa looks. that's the part that we don't see from the outside, ha haiti is very much a -- that haiti is very much a race and class-based society. but here was a president who wanted to raise the black peasantry because that would, were the ranks from which he sprang, to lighten their load, to ease their misery by raising their pay from a dollar to two dollars a day. that alone had created an unforgivable offense to the wealthy, and the u.s. was bound up indices solubly with that group. and so there was race and that t was attract today the u.s. and the sweat shops that didn't want any minimum wage raised above what it had been all the while. >> host: we are talking with author randall robinson, the author of five nonfiction books. 1998, "de

i think what chris dodd is theemented in this book is impermanent feudal class, which is a term thatom coburn uses. it is used to describe the impermanent of washington. a lot of elected officials go on to become lobbyists and consultants. frankly, life is pretty good inside the belt. >> let's watch this. >> "this town." >> mark leibovitch. >> "this town." >> d.c. is described as inflated by big-money. a humanor schumer -- ladle in the local soap celebration buffet. wow, mark. all kinds of reaction. taking down the preening egos of this town. the washington post. is no index.re we cannot find out what is going on in this work. >> this book was so widely anticipated in washington as a screaming indictment. >> washington has created a bull leg index. index.otleg cawley callie dr. suggested the notion of the composition -- >> everyone is talking about the book. everybody thinks they are in it. >> why are people that you wrote about so happy about this book? me.eats what is interesting, a lot of what you are seeing there was done before we saw the book. the speculation took on a life of

i think what chris dodd is implemented in this book is the impermanent feudal class, which is a term that tom coburn uses. it is used to describe the impermanent of washington. a lot of elected officials go to become lobbyists and consultants. frankly, life is pretty good inside the belt. >> let's watch this. >> "this town." >> mark leibovitch. >> "this town." >> d.c. is described as inflated by big-money. >> senator schumer -- a human ladle in the local self celebration buffet. wow, mark. all kinds of reaction. >> they are taking down the preening egos of this town. the washington post. >> i hear there is no index. we cannot find out what is going on in this work. >> this book was so widely anticipated in washington as a screaming indictment. >> washington has created a bootleg index. >> your colleague suggested the notion of the composition -- >> everyone is talking about the book. everybody thinks they are in it. >> why are people that you wrote about so happy about this book?

that so instead i will invest in banks and of those nine that were there, i caught this month ago, chris dodd and barney frank wrote an op-ed piece in the politico, first-time i ever seen policy makers admit frankly as we all knew, most of the banks that were pulled into the meeting were there to camouflage a few that absolutely needed the money. but from that point they took that t.a.r.p. money nobody in the investing world knew what the rules were any more so all the investors went to the sidelines until they could figure out what the investment rules were going to be. >> i do think the ratings agencies played a role in this. this is where i agree with the majority report of the financial crisis inquiry commission, called the miss central cog in the wheel of financial destruction. a lot of people think that is because standard and poor's and moody's are corrupt or something like that, it is possible. i don't see evidence of that. in general you want to assume ignorance before malice and accused of malice if you can prove it. what is funny is this underlying the assumption that was held by m

who was frequently criticized by joe biden and john kerry and barack obama, we're only missing chris doddere, as somebody frequently criticized as being a unilateralist, while i oppose thes use of force against syria i am delight the obama administration is about to act aounilaterally without approval from the u.n. security council. we should take due note of that. >> almost like they put them aside like it's not that important when secretary kerry mentioned obstructionism. >> there are those particularly in europe who say you have to have authority to use force. there has to be some independent approval for what the obama administration is about to do. that's a very european approach to life. the american approach has always been fundamentally different. our approach is we have the right to act to defend american interests unless there's an express prohibition somewhere. there are no express prohibitions around here. as a matter of policy, i think this impending attack is a bad idea. as a matter of american authority we have all we need. i am delighted the obama administration may be on

chris dodd and 40 -- barney frank serve 30 years, chris dodd was on the senate banking committee andchaired it for a while and barney frank was in the house financial service committee. so 30 years. they were both avid and vocal advocates of affordable housing bill. and, in fact, in about 2003, the george w. bush of administration proposed an agency that oversees and get control of fannie and freddie. they were worried about. earning frank blocked that. he said, these institutions done anything wrong with them and if we do this we will get less affordable housing so blocky. he very quickly when the crisis happened shifted the blame to republicans and the regulars and things like that but both of these guys were strong advocates of the policies they think the evidence shows resulted in a financial crisis. and then the bill that was passed and signed into law in 2010 is named after them. dodd-frank. i would say suggest there's more to the story. dodd-frank is officially called the wall street reform and consumer protection act. bills and cars are never called the government exploitatio

you right here, this was a slight hedge compared to what chris dodge -- dodd told me when asked if he would consider being a lobbyist. one in -- of the instances. we see this a lot. why? >> i don't know. it's a common reflex. when you're in office, it is considered unseemly to say that you are looking for your next job or your lobbying job. once you're out of office, it is if it's fixed -- the etch-a- sketch is clean. people are free to make a living. they are free to do this, whether they say they are going to or not. there is no penalty for lying. i wrote this as part of a much larger chapter on former is doing just that. it wears you down. it makes people like me cynical. you have these idealistic change machines, like the obama 2008 machine. very successful campaign. for a powerful, delivered very deftly by the then senator. they said they were not going to opt out of the campaign finances. then they started raising all kinds money, and they opted out. they said they were not going to work with super packs in his campaign. suddenly they were getting outgunned seriously, and said t