Appearing together in public for the first time since theirretirement from Congress, former Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn.,and former Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., took a retrospective look atthe landmark legislation bearing their names.

Speaking at the MarketCounsel annual conference in Las Vegasbefore an audience of 400, mainly investment advisers, the twoex-lawmakers reflected Wednesday on the politics of the legislationand at times defended controversial aspects of the law passed inJuly 2010, such as its 2,300-plus pages.

Dodd set the scene by noting the ad hoc nature of the governmentresponse in the early days of the financial crisis, when FederalReserve Chairman Ben Bernanke advised a group of key legislatorsthat “unless you act within a matter of days the financial systemof this country and a large part of the world” was on the verge ofcollapse.