When you spend 3 decades in the senate, you are bound to build up a lot of IOU's. Senator Christopher Dodd, fighting for his political life in Connecticut, is calling in every single one of them.

Politico's John Bresnahan:

Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) is using every last bit of clout he has accumulated during three decades in the Senate, calling in favors, winning sweetheart deals and steering hundreds of millions of dollars to his home state. He's one of the most politically vulnerable Democratic senators, and he's ... using his influence to insert into 2010 spending bills dozens of earmarks for senior citizen centers, low-income heating assistance, education programs, new buses and highway funds ... Dodd is pushing the Pentagon to buy more Connecticut-built aircraft engines, and he's pressing for more federal dollars for high-speed rail in the Nutmeg State. And his earmark largesse doesn't include a $100 million provision he anonymously stuck into the Senate Democratic health care package, money that Dodd wants to go to the University of Connecticut's medical center. ... Dodd, first elected to the Senate in 1980, is pushing for as much as $1 billion in new federal funding to upgrade high-speed rail lines in his home state. He's also lobbied the Pentagon to buy more C-17 Globemaster cargo planes ... The C-17's engines are made by Pratt & Whitney, a major Connecticut employer. ... Connecticut Republicans have yet to coalesce around a candidate to face Dodd. The state's GOP is engaged in a bitter intraparty fight between former Rep. Rob Simmons and Linda McMahon, a wealthy former professional wrestling executive.'