Dodd in West Liberty

Dodd offers Bilingual Cinco de Mayo Message in West Liberty

Chris Dodd delivered roughly a third of his remarks en espanol for a crowd of 60-75 at the Cinco de Mayo celebration in West Liberty.

The Spanish remarks were not repeated in English. Yo comprende pequitito espanol, but I did pick up "el presidente" and "la Casa Blanca" in his conclusion. During the Spanish portion of his remarks, he also discussed the importance of reading for children (the event was hosted by the West Liberty library) and talked about his experiences in the Peace Corps in the Dominican Republic.

"I had to learn Spanish in the Peace Corps," he told me after the speech, noting that immigrants and their children would be well served by learning English - a remark he made in Spanish during the speech.

"We have to deal with immigration in a reasonable and intelligent way. Historically we have been a welcoming nation; there were exceptions in the Know-Nothing era in the 1850s and again in the 1920s, and we paid a price for that."

Dodd favors a "humane" path to citizenship for people who are already here, but adds that we need to respect people who have waited through the process. "We have people lined up at embassies around the world waiting to come here."

In the English portion of his speech in this Muscatine County town with a large Hispanic population, Dodd called immigration "the wealth of our nation." West Liberty Democratic activist Dave Bradley agreed. "A lot of other small towns are dying, but this one's growing," saying backlash against the immigrant community has faded somewhat in recent years. "You might hate them, but they're going to pay your Social Security."

Congressman Dave Loebsack was also on hand, greeting festival goers and visiting briefly with Dodd.

Addressing the war, Dodd told the crowd "It's time to say America, we're coming home. Iraqis, it's your job now." After the speech, he reminded me he is the only presidential candidate supporting Sen. Russ Feingold's plan for complete US withdrawal in a year. "The only hope for Iraq is clarity on when we're getting out. The president says he won't support a deadline, but I won't support his open-endedness either."

Despite major differences on the war, Dodd says he remains on good terms with his home state colleague Joe Lieberman. "Joe and I have a personal relationship going back over 40 years, and we won't throw that away over a disagreement on one issue, even though it's a big issue. He's been great on other issues over the years." Dodd added that he and Lieberman talk nearly every day and work together well on Connecticut issues.

The main event on Dodd's schedule Saturday was a renewable energy conference in West Branch. I kidded Dodd over risking the West Branch Jinx, an alleged reluctance of presidential candidates to visit West Branch and risk comparison to Herbert Hoover. It turned out that West Liberty Index editor Sara Sedlacek, with whom I shared interview time, was a Hoover descendant. Dodd said he's visted the Hoover library and praised Hoover's non-presidential achievements. "I've been to Belgium, and he's still revered over there" for his famine relief work after World War I.

And yes, he told the diaper joke.