I have not made much hay of this during any of our debate discussions but since you opened the door let me step in for a moment. The fact of the matter is that on paper at least Chris Dodd is the ideal Democratic candidate for 2008. There, I said it. He is level headed, comes from a pure pedigree of not only national service but, more specifically, the kind that put the U.S. in the position of beacon to the world we enjoyed unquestionably until this pResident.

During World War II, Dodd handled cases involving espionage and sabotage that helped cripple Nazi fifth column efforts to destabilize the United States war effort. His work led to the convictions of Reverend Kurt Molzahn, Wilhelm Kunge, Otto Willimanti, and Count Anostase Vonsiatsky on spying charges. Dodd also helped uncover industrial fraud by American firms supplying military hardware, including such New England companies as Anaconda Wire and Cable, Collyer Insulated Wire, Arrow Machine Tool, and Lincoln Machine.

As the war ended, the Allied Powers prepared to convene a military tribunal to prosecute accused Nazi war criminals. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson, the head of the American legal team, requested that Dodd join the jurists assembling at Nuremberg, Germany. Dodd served as Vice-Chairman of the Review Board and Executive Trial Counsel. The latter position rendered Dodd the second ranking U.S. lawyer and s supervisor of the day-to-day management of the U.S. prosecution team. He shaped many of the strategies and policies through which this unprecedented trial took place and frequently dealt with other Allied legal notables such as Sir David Maxwell-Fyfe of Great Britain and Lieutenant General Roman Rudenko of the Soviet Union. Dodd concentrated upon proving the charge of conspiracy to wage aggressive war and consequently cross-examined German industrialists as well as military and political leaders. He reconstructed the will of the last president of the Weimar Republic, Paul von Hindenburg, to reveal that the Nazis had falsified this document to help justify Chancellor Adolph Hitler’s consolidation of power.

Dodd presented portions of virtually every aspect of the prosecution’s case. He developed a degree of notoriety for displaying the shrunken head of a concentration camp inmate during the trial. Some attorneys deemed such behavior grandstanding and they did not appreciate Dodd’s flair for the dramatic. As one of the few civilian lawyers among the U.S. prosecutors, Dodd privately expressed an acute self-consciousness of his unique status. He also experienced the intense loneliness common among Nuremberg staffers separated from their families.

Dodd’s Nuremberg work enhanced his stature and visibility back in the United States. He received a Presidential Citation, the U.S. Medal of Freedom, and the Czechoslovakian Order of the White Lion for his outstanding efforts. In 1949 the Polish government, then dominated by Moscow, offered him a prestigious award for service at Nuremberg. Dodd responded with a scathing, public denunciation of Communism in which he refused to accept honors from a regime that he perceived as barely distinct from National Socialism.

With a father like that it is hard to imagine any way this man would not stand up firmly for reestablishing Habeas Corpus, the Geneva Conventions and the rule of law both domestically and internationally.

Now I know I have poked fun in the past, specifically during the debate live blogging, at Dodd but only because of the fact that he was treated as a non candidate. I have laid back from endorsing anyone to this point and will continue to do so but, were I to change my mind I would be hard pressed not to endorse Dodd.

Maybe if we (read semi-influential bloggers) would give his the credibility he and other like him deserved they might gain the traction we keep wishing they had.