News of the death Wednesday of former Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman unleashed memories from his fellow Democrats as well as Republicans — not to mention reporters who covered him throughout his 40 years in elective office.
What was inarguably most recalled about Lieberman, 82, was that whether one agreed or disagreed with him, the gentleman from Connecticut was just that: a genuine gentleman with a good nature, a sense of self-deprecation, and a steadfast refusal to say anything harsh about anyone.
Put another way, he had the magic of liking and being liked.
He was the Democrat nominee for vice president in 2000 and the first Jewish nominee of a major party for national office in U.S. history (and, in fact, the only Jew ever nominated so far). The ticket of Vice President Al Gore and Lieberman lost to Republicans George W. Bush and Dick Cheney in one of the closest and, up to that point, disputed races.
In a career that spanned from his election to the state senate in 1970 until his retirement from the U.S. Senate in 2012, Lieberman only lost one race: a bid for the U.S. House from the Nutmeg State's 3rd District in 1980, in which Democrat Lieberman lost in a major upset to "Gypsy Moth" (moderate) Republican and fellow State Sen. Larry DeNardis.
Lieberman bounced back two years later to be elected state attorney general.
It was during this race that Lieberman, recently divorced, met a woman named Hadassah Freilich Tucker. He loved to tell how he asked her for a date because he thought it would be interesting to be with a woman named Hadassah, the name of the International Women's Zionist Organization. They were married in 1982, had a daughter to join their children from previous marriages, and became a powerful political team.
Although sporting an overall liberal record on fiscal and cultural issues, Lieberman's support from conservative Republicans was pivotal. When he took on the decidedly liberal (and often obnoxious) Republican Sen. Lowell P. Weicker Jr. in 1988, Lieberman was initially an underdog to the three-term incumbent. But many voters, who came to meet the convivial Lieberman at coffees billed as "A Cup of Joe With Joe," came to like him and see the contrast with the often caustic Weicker.
Lieberman's clever commercials likened Weicker to a grizzly bear who did nothing but growl and make noise when he wasn't sleeping. Lieberman also took a hard-line stand against Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, a contrast to Weicker's public embrace of Castro, and won over Connecticut's Cuban community. Where Weicker was a vigorous opponent of school prayer, Lieberman supported a moment of "silent meditation" in public schools.
All of that was enough for conservatives long fed up with Weicker. Conservative columnist William F. Buckley Jr. launched "BuckPAC," an independent expenditure that attacked Weicker and touted Lieberman as an acceptable alternative.
With many Republicans saying they would not vote for Weicker or Lieberman, Lieberman upset Weicker by 10,000 votes as Republican George H.W. Bush was carrying Connecticut for president. It was easily the biggest upset of the year.
By 2006, Lieberman was an unyielding supporter of President George W. Bush's war on terror and the U.S. strikes into Iraq and Afghanistan. After two reelections to the Senate with more than 60% of the vote, Lieberman lost renomination to anti-war Democrat Ned Lamont, now Connecticut's governor.
Undaunted, Lieberman promptly announced he would continue his campaign as an independent, and conservatives nationwide rallied behind him. In California, three high-profile Republicans weighed in with maximum ($1,000 at the time) contributions for Lieberman: State Party Chair Shawn Steel, Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich, and 1992 U.S. Senate nominee Bruce Herschensohn.
"I felt we [conservatives] owed him for the war on terror," Steel said.
At the White House, press secretary Tony Snow declined to answer whether President Bush supported Republican nominee Alan Schlesinger but offered words of praise for newly minted independent Lieberman.
Lieberman won a three-candidate race with about half the votes and was supported by an estimated 70% of Connecticut Republicans.
In 2008, Lieberman publicly supported his close friend and Republican colleague John McCain for president. Lieberman's appearance at the Republican National Convention that year fueled speculation that McCain would select as his running mate the man who only eight years before had been the Democrat vice presidential nominee.
McCain later said he very much wanted to pick Lieberman but turned to Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin when he became convinced the Connecticut man would be a hard sell on the convention floor.
Lieberman began his career in 1970 by upsetting State Senate Majority Leader Ed Marcus in the Democrat primary. Among his vigorous campaign canvassers were Yale Law School students named Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton.
Lieberman would work closely with Arkansas Gov.-to-be Clinton in the centrist Democratic Leadership Conference (DLC) and helped him become president.
But when Clinton's relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky led to his impeachment and trial in the Senate in 1999, Lieberman took to the Senate floor to say "what he did was awful." But he voted to acquit the president from any wrongdoing.
Clinton never held any animosity toward his old friend and hailed his vice presidential nomination at the 2000 Democratic National Convention.
In his twilight years, citizen Lieberman steadfastly spoke out for causes in which he believed. In 2017, he introduced controversial school choice proponent Betsy DeVos to her Senate confirmation hearings when President Donald Trump named her secretary of education.
Lieberman also was a regular speaker at events sponsored by the expatriate Iran Revolutionary Council calling for the overthrow of the Ayatollah's theocracy.
Days before his death, Lieberman said of Senate Democrat Leader Chuck Schumer to a radio interviewer: "For a majority leader, let alone the highest-ranking Jewish elected official in Washington, to tell Israelis that it's time to get rid of [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu], that's outrageous."
Schumer had nothing critical to say about Lieberman and hailed him after his death. So did former President Barack Obama and other Democrats with whom Lieberman had clashed in the past.
And, as did just about just about everyone else who knew Joe Lieberman, they remembered him as a true gentleman.
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
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