Senator Joe Lieberman
Al Gore’s running mate who later angered fellow Democrats by endorsing John Mccain
SENATOR JOE LIEBERMAN, who has died aged 82, was Al Gore’s running mate in the US Democrats’ presidential campaign of 2000 when he came within a whisker of becoming America’s first Jewish vice-president; in 2008, however, he crossed party lines and endorsed the Republican Senator John Mccain for president.
Lieberman fell out with his party over its opposition to the invasion of Iraq and, in a vicious primary campaign in 2006, he lost the Democratic nomination in Connecticut to an anti-war opponent supported by the Party. Lieberman refused to give up, ran as an Independent and won another term in the Senate.
He continued to vote on most issues with the Democrats, attending weekly strategy meetings and giving them a wafer-thin majority in the Senate. However he remained a passionate supporter of the war in Iraq which Democratic party leaders were trying to bring to an end.
In 2002, with John Mccain, he had co-sponsored the resolution that authorised the invasion of Iraq. Indeed he became the war’s Democratic cheerleader to the point where he was seriously mooted as a replacement for the Defense Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, should he be removed or resign. After the 2006 debacle, he was increasingly to be seen at Mccain’s side, travelling with him on many trips abroad.
During the 2008 primary season when Mccain was fighting to be chosen as the Republican candidate, Lieberman agreed to endorse his nomination. “Being a Republican is important. Being a Democrat is important. But you know what’s more important than that? The interest and well-being of the United States of America,” he declared. He was even thought to be Mccain’s first choice as running mate, an idea that was swiftly scotched by the party which demanded an anti-abortion candidate. Lieberman had always believed in a woman’s right to choose; Sarah Palin was the Republicans’ choice.
Though Lieberman claimed his support was for the man rather than the party, his endorsement for Mccain was regarded as treachery by his fellow Democrats. When he went further and attacked the Democratic candidate Barack Obama on domestic issues as well as on Iraq, proclaiming that Obama’s “eloquence is no substitute for a record...”, it was regarded as the last straw.
Joseph Isadore Lieberman was born in Stamford, Connecticut, on February 24 1942 into an Orthodox Jewish family. He took a degree in Politics and Economics from Yale University where he became a star liberal on campus, editor of the Yale Daily News,a civil rights campaigner and anti-vietnam war activist. His senior honours thesis was a study of the Democratic state leader John Bailey, who brought together different ethnic groups into a winning coalition.
Lieberman then attended Yale Law School and after qualifying in 1967 he worked for a New Haven-based law firm. In 1970 he took his first step on the political ladder when he was elected as a “reform Democrat” to the Connecticut Senate.
During his campaign he was assisted by a young Yale student called Bill Clinton. At the time it was a risk for a young and ambitious southerner to campaign for a Jew. The two men became close friends and Lieberman would return the compliment in 1991, when he became the first Democratic Senator to support Clinton’s – then outsider – bid for the White House.
In 1988 Lieberman defeated the moderate Republican Lowell Weicker to win election to the Senate, and was re-elected in 1994 and 2000. Like Clinton he served as chairman of the Democratic Leadership Council.
But over time Lieberman became more socially and culturally conservative, embracing more fully the Orthodox Judaic tradition in which he had been raised. His relationship with Clinton soured in 1998, during the Lewinsky scandal when Lieberman stood up in the Senate and delivered a public rebuke.
In a speech uttered more in sorrow than in anger, Lieberman described Clinton’s conduct as “immoral”. “In this case,” he told a stunned Senate, “the President apparently had extramarital relations with an employee half his age and did so in the workplace in the vicinity of the Oval Office.” Such behaviour, he said, “is harmful, for it sends a message of what is acceptable behaviour to the American public... The President’s relationship with Ms Lewinsky not only contradicted the values he has publicly embraced over the last six years, it has, I fear, compromised his moral authority.”
It looked for a time as if the speech might destroy Clinton’s career, but in the end it probably did more damage to Lieberman’s reputation in the Democratic Party. The American public eventually forgave Clinton. Even Lieberman did his best to mend fences, including contributing to a White House “prayer breakfast”. But there were many in the Democratic Party who could not forgive him.
As time went on Lieberman became closer to the neo-conservative Right. He became close to Dick Cheney with whose wife Lynne he co-founded a group to criticise liberal professors. He became a favourite Democratic guest at functions hosted by William Buckley’s National Review.
What some Clinton aides saw as Lieberman’s treachery was cemented in 2000 when he accepted an invitation to become vice-president Al Gore’s running mate – a move widely viewed as an attempt by Gore to distance himself from the Clinton scandals. Lieberman’s performance in the campaign, however, did little to improve Gore’s chances.
His invocation of his faith in almost every campaign speech (he even went as far as to compare Gore to Moses) upset many fellow Jews and campaigners against antisemitism. “There may come a time when they sit him down and say: ‘We need to talk more policy and less God’,” observed one seasoned Democrat.
Four years later Lieberman decided to stand as a presidential candidate himself, but fell at the first fence when Gore endorsed Howard Dean.
The strength of feeling against Lieberman in the Party was evident in 2006 when he sought the Democratic Party’s renomination for the Senate from Connecticut but lost to the anti-war candidate Ned Lamont.
Lamont made much of an incident in 2005, when President George W Bush, while shaking Senate members’ hands, had appeared to grasp Lieberman’s head in both hands and lean close to his cheek. Lamont’s supporters exploited the incident in a campaign button “The Kiss: Too Close for Comfort” and a large papier-mâché sculpture that followed Lieberman on the campaign trail.
Defying Democratic leaders and friends, Lieberman ran for reelection as an independent and, by making his Senate congressional clout a selling point, won reelection for a fourth term. He retired from the Senate in 2013.
In 1965 Lieberman married Betty Haas. The marriage was dissolved in 1981 and the following year he married Hadassah Tucker. He is survived by her, by their daughter, by a son and daughter from his first marriage, and by a stepson.
Joe Lieberman, born February 24 1942, died March 27 2024