"It relates to his personal conduct and issues of ethics," he said of Mr. Dodd, who has had to respond in recent months to charges that he and his wife, Jackie, received favoritism on the refinancing of a mortgage and that the senator allowed loopholes in legislation that provided bonuses for executives of AIG, which had received federal assistance.
"None of it is true," Mr. Dodd said in an interview in Torrington last month regarding the negative coverage that he has received recently.
"With Lieberman, it was about policies, it was about the war," Mr. Healy said in an interview Monday night before speaking at an event at the John Pettibone School that was sponsored by the New Milford Republican Town Committee.
"I think Lieberman was a lot closer to the grassroots than people gave him credit for, so it sustained him in the long run," he said of the senator, who lost the Democratic primary in 2006 to Greenwich businessman Ned Lamont but then captured the general election as an independent candidate.
Mr. Lieberman supported Republican presidential candidate John McCain in last year's presidential election, even though he still caucuses with the Senate Democrats.
"Dodd has been absent without leave," Mr. Healy said of the five-term senator, making an apparent reference to his moving his family to Iowa in late 2007 when he was running for the Democratic presidential nomination and his work as the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee.
"People blame Barney Frank and me, but we only became chairmen 24 months ago," Mr. Dodd said last month, making reference to the role that he and Mr. Frank (D-Mass.), the chairman of the U.S. House Financial Services Committee, have had in the instability in the nation's financial sector.
Former U.S. Rep. Rob Simmons (R-Stonington), state Sen. Sam Caliguri (R-Waterbury) and former U.S. Ambassador to Ireland Tom Foley of Greenwich are considering a run for the U.S. Senate seat.
A recent Quinnipiac University poll indicated that all three would defeat Mr. Dodd, who has served longer in the upper body than anyone from Connecticut, if the election were held today.
Mr. Healy said he would prefer that the nomination be determined next year without holding a primary in August but indicated that a primary could benefit Republicans by "motivating" their supporters.
On another topic, the party chairman said he disagrees with charges that Gov. M. Jodi Rell (R-Brookfield) has lacked leadership.
Critics have said that, although she has the highest poll ratings of any statewide official in Connecticut, Mrs. Rell has failed to enact proposals to eliminate the car tax and increase the income tax to pay for more early childhood education programs.
Additionally, they have said that she announced in her budget message in February that she wanted to restructure the scope of state operations yet recently agreed to a tentative concession package with the state bargaining units that would avoid any layoffs in the immediate future.
"We have to elect more Republican legislators to give her more bargaining power against the Democrats and the public employee unions that control the Democratic Party," Mr. Healy said, in an apparent reference to the Democratic majorities of 24 to 12 in the state Senate and 112 to 39 in the state House.
"Democratic legislators are all about increasing the size of government through higher taxes," he added.
Mr. Healy said he disagrees with critics who have called Mrs. Rell an absentee governor.
The Hartford Courant in 2007 and The Fairfield County Weekly in 2008 published stories that indicated that Mrs. Rell maintains a very limited work schedule.
The Fairfield County Weekly reported that after reviewing four and a half months of public records related to Mrs. Rell's schedule, it discovered that there were "Loads of drive-time radio chats, bill-signing ceremonies and public events. Not so many meetings with her commissioners, senior staff or serious journalists."
State Rep. Robert Godfrey (D-Danbury), a longtime friend of Mrs. Rell's, said in an interview in January that "it is no secret that Lisa Moody is running the government," a reference to Mrs. Rell's veteran chief of staff.
"I think all of that is an irrelevant point," Mr. Healy said.
"She works hard," he said of the governor, who took office in July 2004. "We don't hire her to do the detail work. We hire her for leadership and vision. She does that.
"If that was the case, it would be reflective in her poll numbers," he said regarding charges that Mrs. Rell has been an absentee governor.
Nationally, Mr. Healy said he believes the Republican Party, which had controlled the White House 28 of the previous 40 years before last November's election, has learned some lessons from its defeat last year and in the 2006 midterm congressional elections.
"If you go to Washington and do the opposite of what people asked for, the voters are going to throw you out," he said.
Mr. Healy said that Democratic President Barack Obama's expensive platform has "galvanized" the party because of the massive debt it will create for future generations.
"Everyone is concerned about their children and grandchildren paying back this debt," New Milford Republican Town Committee Chairman Pat Sherry said in an interview.
"In the last 100 days we have borrowed as much as Ronald Reagan did in his whole eight years in office," said Justin Bernier of Plainville, who is seeking the Republican nomination in next year's race in the Fifth Congressional District.
Washington Post columnist Robert Samuelson has stated that even when the debt is projected to decrease in 2016 it would be 3.2 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). He has written that Democrats criticized Mr. Reagan for leaving office with deficits that were 3.1 percent of GDP.
Mr. Healy said that the recent Tea Party protests were an indication of opposition to Mr. Obama's spending policies.