And here's another entering the race, Sen. Christopher Dodd.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/20...htm?POE=NEWISVA Dodd to enter 2008 presidential race Updated 1/10/2007 7:47 PM ET
NEW YORK (AP) — Democratic Senator Christopher Dodd, a veteran lawmaker who entered Congress in the post-Watergate class of 1974, will announce his bid for the presidency, Democratic officials said Wednesday.
Dodd, 62, will make the announcement in an interview Thursday morning on the "Imus in the Morning" radio talk show — a curious bit of timing since he will be forced to compete with heavy coverage of President Bush's speech on the Iraq war.
The Connecticut senator will travel late Thursday to Iowa, which will host the first presidential nominating caucus next January. He heads to South Carolina, an early primary state, on Sunday.
Kathy Sullivan, the chairwoman of the Democratic Party in New Hampshire, said in an interview that she had spoken to Dodd and he said, "I'm not going to do the exploratory thing, I'm going to plunge right in."
The 26-year Senate veteran enters a growing Democratic field overshadowed by two likely candidates — Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois. Outgoing Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack has already announced his candidacy, as have former North Carolina Senator John Edwards and Ohio Representative Dennis Kucinich.
Throughout his decades-long career in Washington, Dodd has forged strong ties with labor unions, championed fiscal accountability for corporations and championed education and other children's issues. This month, he became chairman of the influential Senate Banking Committee, and he is a senior member of the Foreign Relations Committee.
Sullivan said Dodd had other attributes that would make him appealing to voters.
"People really like him. He's very smart. He's also very articulate. And I think he might have the sharpest wit of anyone in the field," Sullivan said.
Dodd voted in 2002 to authorize military intervention in Iraq, but he has become an outspoken critic of the war and now calls his vote a mistake. He has said he would oppose an escalation of U.S. forces in Iraq and has said Congress should consider withholding funding for such a troop increase.
Dodd has been politically active on behalf of other Democrats, raising money and campaigning for candidates across the country. He chaired the Democratic National Committee from 1995-96.
In 1974, he was elected to the House at the age of 30, part of a Democratic tide after the Watergate scandal and President Richard Nixon's resignation.