Larry Kudlow has expressed interest and started making contacts to possibly make a run for Chris Dodd’s Senate seat in Connecticut in 2010.  The cable-show financial analyst senses Dodd’s vulnerability on his sweetheart mortgage deals with Countrywide Finance and his Irish mansion, all bought on a Senator’s salary.  Kudlow is the latest celebrity talking head to think about a Senate run (via Instapundit):

As conservative economist on the weeknight CNBC show “Kudlow and Co.,” Larry Kudlow just last month was poking at U.S. Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn.

Dodd “has yet to divulge fully his sweetheart mortgage deals with the former Countrywide,” Kudlow said in a Feb. 13 screed. “He’s re-fi’ed his mortgages, but we don’t know those documents, either. Instead of being impeached, he’s still around.”

Now, it appears as if the TV show host and economic consultant and syndicated columnist may be going directly after Dodd.

Politico reporter Josh Kraushaar reported Monday that Kudlow “confirmed his interest” in running against Dodd in 2010.

How serious is Kudlow?  Serious enough to have dinner with John Cornyn, who heads the National Republican Senatorial Commitee and would be in position to back Kudlow.  Kudlow told Politico that Cornyn would love to make Dodd’s re-election a national case on Democratic policy, and presumably on Democratic ethics as well.

In 2010, the Republicans will have to run on fiscal responsibility and economic management, especially if the market continues to slide and the economy keeps stalling as badly as it is now.  Dodd helped run the housing market into the ground, but thus far has managed to avoid much of the responsibility by shifting it to what he calls deregulation.  Kudlow seems uniquely positioned to expose Dodd’s arguments as fraudulent and to explain in clear terms what Dodd did to wreck the nation’s economy.  And that’s before Kudlow rips Dodd over the Friends of Angelo loans he received from Countrywide while he was supposed to be overseeing the industry.

Will Kudlow actually take the demotion from the CNBC show to make the run?  Chris Matthews and Joe Scarborough both passed on Senate bids over the last couple of months.  If Kudlow accepts the challenge, he will likely have to leave CNBC soon.  That would take a remarkable commitment on Kudlow’s part, but the upside for the GOP and for the country would be tremendous.  We could remove one of the worst actors on economic policy on Capitol Hill and replace him with an expert who can help repair the damage.

Now, if we could only get Rick Santelli to run against Barney Frank, we’d be golden.