THE HILL: Dodd’s pay rules linked to tough reelection prospects.

Undercutting your president is rarely a smart strategy — unless, like Sen. Chris Dodd, you are fighting to save your political life.

Apparently that’s exactly why the Connecticut Democrat called an audible and put in the stimulus tougher executive compensation rules than those proposed by President Obama. The rules are unpopular with business, and several lobbyists and other observers said they are widely viewed as related to Dodd’s poor poll numbers, which show the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee vulnerable, partly because of reports that he refinanced two mortgages in 2003 at favorable terms with Countrywide Financial.

“It gives all the signs of desperation,” said one Wall Street analyst who follows politics, but who did not want to go on the record for fear of angering the powerful chairman.

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