Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd has prostate cancer. He'll have surgery early next month and be back at work, his office says, in September. And he is still seeking reelection in 2010.

Dodd is down in the polls, but a health care reform victory might help voters forget that he is a paid tool of the banking and credit card industries. Alternatively (and callously), this would maybe be a good opportunity for Dodd to step aside and not seek reelection and still save face? (Of course, this is a guy who moved his who family to Iowa before the presidential primaries and then finished sixth. But still.)

Obviously we wish him a speedy recovery.