Extraordinarily blatant. I'm amazed that 30 years (thirty years!) in the Senate didn't teach Dodd to be more subtle in the uses of power than this. I mean, this guy ran for President. This is the best you can do, Dodd?
When the people don't care too much about what goes on at the top, or when the people at the top notice how easy it is to sway public opinion on certain policies one way or the other, they start caring less and less about stuff like that.
Being in the senate taught him that senators take bribes for industry favors and everyone gets away with it. According to his controversy section on wikipedia, he received bribes from countrywide, fannie mae, freddie mac, AIG, while being chairman of the Senate Banking Committee. Apparently he was also caught funneling a ton of AIG money through his wife in an offshore holding company.
As Greenwald points out in his latest hit piece, Dodd also denounced the revolving door and said he would never be a lobbyist.
My cat would be a better lobbyist.