Joseph Isadore Lieberman, (born February 24, 1942) is a Democratic U.S. senator from Connecticut, most well-known as Al Gore's running mate on the Democratic ticket in 2000. The religiously-observant Lieberman is the first Jewish candidate in the United States to have been nominated by a major party as their Vice Presidential candidate. In 2004, Lieberman campaigned for the Democratic nomination for President, but gained little support from primary voters and dropped out of the race.
Joseph Lieberman | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Junior Senator, Connecticut | |
| In office January 1989–Present | |
| Preceded by | Lowell Weicker |
| Succeeded by | Incumbent (2007) |
| Personal details | |
| Nationality | american |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse | Hadassah Lieberman |
Lieberman was born in Stamford, Connecticut to Henry Lieberman (the son of Polish immigrants) and Marcia Manger (of Austrian background). He attended public schools in Stamford, received his bachelor's degree from Yale in 1964 and his law degree from Yale Law School in 1967, after which he worked at the prestigious New Haven law firm of Wiggin & Dana. Lieberman was elected to the Connecticut State Senate in 1970 and served there for 10 years, including the last 6 as Majority Leader. From 1982 to 1988, he served as Connecticut's 21st Attorney General. Lieberman defeated liberal Republican Lowell Weicker to win election to the United States Senate in 1988 and was re-elected in 1994 and 2000.
A former chair of the influential Democratic Leadership Council, a collection of centrist and conservative Democrats, Lieberman is considered to be one of the most conservative of prominent Democratic politicians. He has been a strong supporter of the U.S.-led 2003 invasion of Iraq and criticized some of his opponents in the 2004 Primaries for their opposition to the war; he is also generally more sympathetic to the role of religion in public life than many within the Party, and he first achieved national notice for his public criticism of President Bill Clinton's ethical conduct during the Lewinsky scandal in 1998. On other issues, such as abortion, gun control and the environment, Lieberman's views more closely follow the positions of the Democratic party mainstream. Although sometimes characterized by his more liberal colleagues as a "Republicrat," Lieberman is viewed by others as a Democrat in the tradition of Washington Senator Henry "Scoop" Jackson, who advocated a hawkish foreign policy and a liberal domestic program and whom some consider to be an ancestor of modern neoconservatism. In 2005 media reports suggested that Lieberman might replace Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. [1] Lieberman dispelled the rumors, saying "It's a total fantasy, there's just no truth to it." [2]
Unfolding 2006 Primary Challenge
Contrary to tradition, Lieberman, a sitting Senator, may be facing a primary challenge supported by progressive elements of the Connecticut Democratic party. Greenwich businessman Ned Lamont has been rumored by multiple sources at influential political blog Daily Kos to be mulling a primary challenge to Lieberman in the 2006 elections.[3][4] Lamont has been presented as being against the Iraq war and strongly in favor of privacy rights and full civil liberties. He has also ostensibly pledged to spend over $1 million of his personal funds on the campaign, and has apparently received the backing of former U.S. Senator Lowell Weicker,who was unseated by Lieberman in 1988. In addition, Senator Ted Kennedy's wife, Kiki, has apparently introduced Lamont to members of her social circle, most likely for fundraising and endorsement purposes.
Senate tenure
Lieberman was first elected to the United States Senate as a Democrat in 1988, scoring the nation's biggest political upset that year by a margin of just 10,000 votes after being backed by a coalition of conservative Democrats, allied with conservative Republicans who were upset with Republican incumbent Lowell Weicker's liberal voting record. Lieberman was even endorsed by National Review and it was joked in many circles how the Democratic candidate was more conservative than the Republican one. Six years later, he made history by winning the biggest landslide victory ever in a Connecticut Senate race, drawing 67 percent of the vote and beating his opponent by more than 350,000 votes. In 1998, Lieberman earned widespread praise as the first prominent Democrat to publicly chastise Bill Clinton for his affair with Monica Lewinsky. In 2000, while concurrently running for the vice presidency, Lieberman was elected to a third Senate term by winning 64 percent of the vote.
When control of the Senate switched from the Republicans to Democrats hands in June 2001, Lieberman became Chair of the Governmental Affairs Committee, with oversight responsibilities over a broad range of government activities. In addition, he is a member of the Environment and Public Works Committee and chair of its Subcommittee Clean Air, Wetlands and Private Property; the Armed Services Committee, where he chaired the Subcommittee on AirLand Forces and sits of the Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities; and the Small Business Committee. When Republican control of the Senate resumed in January 2003, Lieberman resumed his role as ranking minority member of the committees he had once chaired.
Vice presidential campaign
In August 2000, the presumptive-Democratic nominee for president, Al Gore, tapped Lieberman to be his vice-presidential running mate. His selection marked the first time a Jewish candidate was part of major party's presidential ticket. Lieberman's Senate term was also due to expire in that election cycle and he decided to stage a run to maintain that seat as well. If he won the vice presidency, he presumably would have resigned his Senate seat.
Lieberman later criticized Al Gore for adopting a populist theme during their 2000 campaign, and stated he had objected to Gore's "people vs. the powerful" message, believing it was not the best strategy for Democrats to use to win the election.[5]
Presidential campaign
On January 13, 2003, Lieberman announced his intention to seek the Democratic nomination as a candidate in the 2004 presidential election. Describing his Presidential hopes, Lieberman opined that his historically Hawkish stance would appeal to voters: "Among the seven Democratic candidates, I'm the strongest on security," he said. "In an age of terrorism and tyranny, the American people are not going to vote for a candidate -- no matter how angry they are at George Bush about their lost jobs, their higher cost of health insurance, the desecration of our environment and compromise of our rights --... unless they believe that Democrat can keep them safe. And I'm the one, based on my record, who will do that."
Lieberman attempted to convey his hawkishness with frequent attacks on Howard Dean, the early front-runner and an Iraq war critic.
Lieberman was seen as a marginal contender in the large primary race. The highmark of Lieberman's campaign was a January 26th Gallup exit poll suggesting that Lieberman might have gotten third-place in the New Hampshire primary. Lieberman claimed this poll as evidence of "Joementum". When the official New Hampshire primary results were released, however, it was clear that Lieberman actually got fifth place and that Lieberman's presumptions of Joementum were ill-founded.
A few weeks later on February 3, 2004, Lieberman withdrew his candidacy after failing to win any of the five primaries or two caucuses held that day. One thing that is believed to have cost him votes among Democrats was his unwavering support for the war in Iraq.
In December 2003, former Vice-President Al Gore, Lieberman's former running mate, endorsed Governor Howard Dean saying, "This is about all of us and all of us need to get behind the strongest candidate (Dean)". This caused a rift due to the contentous relationship between Lieberman and Dean during the primary. Furthermore, Gore did not call Lieberman to prepare him of his endorsement. However, after the fact, it turned out Gore was to call all the candidates the night before, but the news was leaked to the media and Gore decided not too.
Censorship
Lieberman has been criticized by many computer and video game players for his stance on video games; he is a strong supporter of video game censorship. He has also been vocal in the censorship of many controversial musical artists. In the late 1990s Lieberman was vocal in lobbying for censorship against shock rocker Marilyn Manson, calling his group "one of the sickest" he had ever seen. As a senator he inspired the advent of the Entertainment Software Rating Board. The Entertainment Software Association is against governmental regulation of or restriction on video games. Therefore, the organization opposes Lieberman. He has been known many times to denounce the violence contained in video games and has made attempts to regulate sales of violent video games to minors.
On November 29, 2005, Lieberman, together with Hillary Clinton and Evan Bayh introduced the Family Entertainment Protection Act. The act is intended to protect children from inappropriate content found in video games.
Autism
Leiberman introduced legislation in November, 2005, to force the Center for Disease Control (CDC) to open the Vaccine Safety Datalink (VSD) to researchers, as requested by advocates for the autism community. The CDC has restricted access to the VSD since Mark Geier claimed a link between thimerosal containing vaccines (TCVs) and autism using the VSD in 2004.
Religion
Lieberman is noted for being an observant Jew, and attends an Orthodox synagogue, though he is careful not to describe himself as "Orthodox"[6] (for example, he does not wear a yarmulke in public). While the American public has been increasingly receptive to Jewish politicans in positions of leadership, no Jewish individual has yet been elected to either of the two high offices Lieberman has sought, the vice presidency and the presidency, although Lieberman, along with Gore, won the popular vote in 2000. Parallels have been noted to John F. Kennedy, the first and as of 2005 the only Roman Catholic President of the United States.
"The Gang of 14"
On May 23, 2005, Lieberman was one of fourteen moderate senators to forge a compromise on the Democrats' use of the judicial filibuster, thus blocking the Republican leadership's attempt to implement the so-called "nuclear option". Under the agreement, the Democrats would retain the power to filibuster a Bush judicial nominee only in an "extraordinary circumstance", and three of the filibustered Bush appellate court nominees (Janice Rogers Brown, Priscilla Owen and William Pryor) would receive a vote by the full Senate.
Iraq War Stance
Lieberman has staunchly supported the Iraq War. In a candid November 29 2005 op-ed piece for The Wall Street Journal, Lieberman praised the efforts of the U.S. military in the occupation of Iraq and criticized both parties,
"I am disappointed by Democrats who are more focused on how President Bush took America into the war in Iraq almost three years ago, and by Republicans who are more worried about whether the war will bring them down in next November's elections, than they are concerned about how we continue the progress in Iraq in the months and years ahead."[7]
Democratic Party leadership rebuked Lieberman. On December 9, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid claimed to be troubled by Lieberman's comments, "I've talked to Senator Lieberman, and unfortunately he is at a different place on Iraq than the majority of the American people." House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi added, "I completely disagree with Lieberman. I believe that we have a responsibility to speak out if we think that the course of action that our country is not making the American people safer, making our military stronger and making the region more stable."[8]
Lieberman refused to recant his position, stating "I've had this position for a long time -- that we need to finish the job."[9] His defense of the administration has led some to speculate that he is attempting to position himself to replace Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld or another high-ranking government official, but Lieberman has denied having any desire for this.[10]
Senator Lieberman is the presumed Democratic nominee for his senate seat in the 2006, but some liberal groups have considered running another candidate in light of Lieberman's hawkish stance in Iraq.[11] Lowell Weicker has been said to be considering a run against Lieberman as an Independent.
Publications
Lieberman is the author of five books: The Power Broker (1966), a biography of the late Democratic Party chairman, John M. Bailey; The Scorpion and the Tarantula (1970), a study of early efforts to control nuclear proliferation; The Legacy (1981), a history of Connecticut politics from 1930-1980; Child Support in America (1986), a guidebook on methods to increase the collection of child support from delinquent fathers, and In Praise of Public Life (2000), a spirited defense of public life that draws on personal experience.
Quotes
"I cannot help but say, however, that those who were responsible for killing 3,000 Americans on September 11, 2001, never apologized. Those who have killed hundreds of Americans in uniform in Iraq working to liberate Iraq and protect our security have never apologized. And those who murdered and burned and humiliated four Americans in Fallujah a while ago never received an apology from anybody. ... But Americans are different. That's why we're outraged by this. That's why the apologies were due." -7 May 2004 [speaking as a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee to U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld]
"On the question that we're celebrating today, Howard Dean throughout this campaign has said he wasn't sure that Saddam really represented a threat to us. At one point he said, 'I suppose the Iraqis are better off with Saddam Hussein gone.' I would say this, and this is a choice the voters have to make in the primaries. If Howard Dean had his way, Saddam Hussein would be in power today, not in prison."
Trivia
- Lieberman is 5 feet 8 inches tall.[12]
- Because of his conservative views, Lieberman has often been described by critics as a DINO.
External link
- U.S. Senator Joseph Lieberman
- Introduction of Vehicle and Fuel Choices for American Security Act
- About.com: The Unknown Joe Lieberman- 20 Surprising Facts About the Democrat Who Angers Democrats
- Lieberman says he's got the 'Joementum'
- Senator Lieberman's Campaign Website