Vice President Joseph Biden traveled to Hartford, Conn., Friday to raise money for politically embattled Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), calling him his “best friend— and emphatically praising his service in the Senate.

Dodd, however, stayed in Washington to work on the health care reform bill instead of joining the vice president in Connecticut as planned.

The crowd of about 175 people included many of Connecticut’s Democratic Party power brokers, who paid $500 each to hear Biden.

“Chris Dodd is the first United States senator that has simultaneously chaired two major committees in a moment of genuine national crisis,— Biden said of Dodd’s chairmanship of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee and his leadership of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee during the illness of the late Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.). “And had he got either of those jobs wrong, the consequences for America would be dire,— Biden said. “That is not hyperbole — that is a fact.—

Biden said Dodd was in “a hell of a race— to keep his seat.

“Chris is getting the living hell beat out of him, the living bejesus beat out of him,— Biden said. “Why? Because he’s being a leader.—