Love In Short Supply For Political Spouses

Her infuriated husband cried foul.

"That is a flat-out lie and it's low-blow politics at its worst," Dodd complained in a recent Hartford Courant op-ed piece. "It is despicable that the Republican chairman would be lying about my wife's background and unfairly attacking her."

Jackie Dodd serves on the corporate boards of video rental company Blockbuster Inc., assisted living facility operator Brookdale Senior Living Inc., CME Group Inc., which is the parent company of the Chicago Board of Trade and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange; and pharmaceutical makers Cardiome Pharma Corp. and Javelin Pharmaceuticals.

She hired an ethics counsel to ensure there were no conflicts with her husband's Senate work before agreeing to take the posts.

"You're going to see these kind of conflicts more and more in families where both spouses work," said Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a government watchdog group. "High-powered people are often likely to be married to other high-powered people."

After a Courant story last month detailing Jackie Dodd's corporate posts, Connecticut Republican Party Chairman Chris Healy pounced.