Sen. Chris Dodd, on the cell phone and on the move, made no secret Thursday that he has heard the liberal criticisms of his effort to cut a deal with Republicans in crafting a reform of financial regulations.

And he had also clearly heard the umbrage on the right, including from Banking Committee colleagues like Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., that his decision to introduce his bill next week and mark it up roughly one week later would be too hasty a pace for a major package of reforms.

Striving to strike a deal on the bill that will deliver enough votes to overcome Republican filibusters, and soon enough to avoid conflicting with senators' all-important reelection plans, Dodd, the retiring Democrat, plans to disappoint both camps.

Those who complain the financial reform would be rushed if he unveils his bill next week misread the legislative calendar, the senator said. Only about 35 to 40 working days remain in which to debate and pass a Senate financial reform bill, Dodd said, given the Senate's calendar of recesses and holidays. And that bill would still have to be reconciled with the bill already passed in the House before becoming law.

"When you start adding up the actual working days here, it's maybe 35, 40 days to reform a financial service sector that hasn't been touched since 1934," the senator said in an interview on Thursday.

Meanwhile, Dodd pushed back against commenators who have said that his efforts to win Republican votes and to appease the banking lobby -- which is fighting efforts at new regulation and the implementation of a new watchdog agency to protect consumers of financial products -- will water the bill down.

For reasons of legislative math, with Republicans determined to block Democratic initiatives by use of the filibuster, "this has to be a bipartisan bill," Dodd said.

"If this is strictly a Democratic bill, it fails. If it's a good bill, people love it, great editorials, the consumer groups will cheer wildly, but nothing will have happened."

To hear some critics, he said, "It's like I'm not for it. Of course I'm for it. I'm the chairman of a committee with one quarter of the United States (Senate) sitting on it, almost equally divided between Democrats and Republicans. Now, what I would write, were I king for day and what I can write as a chairman of a committee in a highly divided institution in a politically acrimonious environment..." He trailed off into a chuckle.

The senator went on, saying he and the committee have to avoid punitive measures against banks that precipitated a massive recession, in favor of a prospective attitude aimed at crafting a better future system of transparency and oversight of financial corporations: