Chris Dodd appeared on MSNBC earlier and was asked by Andrea Mitchell about Dennis Kucinich's urging his supporters to caucus for Obama as their second choice. Dodd offered a fierce and principled takedown of the maneuver and got a nice dig in at Obama while he was at it.

Well, I don't think that Kucinich supporters in Iowa like the idea that Dennis is going to tell them how to vote tomorrow night. I went back and stood up and filibustered on the constitution the other day, Barack Obama did not. I know Kucinich supporters here care about the constitution.

As he elaborated on his distaste for the practice of candidates' urging supporters to caucus for someone else, he appealed to the pride with which Iowans approach their first in the nation responsibility.

I don't think they're going to walk into a caucus at Dennis's behest and cast a ballot he'd like them to cast. This is not an auction here. [...]

I'll make up my own mind as a caucus-goer but don't you tell me as a candidate, in fact I'm offended that you'd even suggest that I ought to do what you want me to do. [...]

The idea that you're willing to market me, to auction me off to some other campaign would truly bother me.

Notice how he casts himself as the caucus-goer in the scenario rather than the candidate, clearly trying to convey the message: "I'm a one of you." Hell, if any candidate has earned the right to make such an appeal, it's Chris Dodd, he did move to Iowa after all. Which begs the question: will Senator and Mrs. Dodd be caucusing tomorrow night? I presume not since their residency there has been merely a function of the campaign but I'm sure Iowans would not begrudge them, as official residents of the state, the chance to take part in a process as caucus-goers that Senator Dodd has been so involved in as a candidate. Or is there a law against candidates caucusing?

Notably, Dodd also used the interview as an opportunity to urge the other candidates to stop calling his office asking for his own Kucinich-esque endorsement. When pressed to reveal which campaigns had approached him, he refused to say, the implication being the top 3 had solicited his second choice support.

Update [2008-1-2 15:19:15 by Todd Beeton]:Not a shock to learn officially that the Dodds will in fact not be caucusing tomorrow night, as they are not official residents of Iowa.