Joseph Lieberman, 1942-2024 The former Democratic Senator from Connecticut was clear-headed about the need to deter and resist America’s enemies.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/joe-lieberman-dies-age-82-7488ccf3?mod=opinion_lead_pos8
Joe Lieberman, who died Wednesday at age 82, was the kind of Democrat who can’t be found much these days, and there aren’t many like him in the Republican Party either. He was a foreign policy hawk who believed in the necessity of American military power and diplomacy to expand the zone of freedom in the world.
Lieberman rose in Connecticut politics as a moderate Democrat in a more moderate age. We first met him in 1988 when he ran for the Senate against the liberal Republican incumbent Lowell Weicker. He ran to Weicker’s right and won in an upset.
That set him on a 24-year Senate career notable for promoting pro-growth economic policies and a strong national defense, in addition to Democratic domestic priorities such as gay and abortion rights. He supported a low tax rate on capital gains, and his opposition to the “public option” was crucial to its removal from ObamaCare in 2010.
Lieberman was the rare Democratic office holder to criticize President Bill Clinton’s ethical misadventures in the 1990s, which made him a logical choice as a running mate in 2000 as Al Gore tried to move out of Mr. Clinton’s moral shadow. He was the first Jewish candidate on the national ticket of a major party.
As a Senator, Lieberman supported Presidents regardless of party in promoting U.S. interests abroad. He backed George H.W. Bush in the first Gulf War, in contrast to most other Democrats at the time, including then Sen. Joe Biden. The Vietnam syndrome was still prominent on the left, and the authorization to use force passed only 52-47.
After 9/11, Lieberman supported the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and continued to do so even as liberal opposition grew and others who had voted for the Iraq intervention turned tail. (Mr. Biden again.) The national left made Lieberman a chief political target in 2006, and he lost the Democratic primary to Ned Lamont. But he was popular enough in the state to run and win one more term as an independent.
Lieberman was a man of deep religious conviction, and we still recall him skipping meetings on the Sabbath on a trip to Beijing. He continued to play an active role in political affairs after his time in office, including many contributions to these pages. He saw clearly the threat from Iran, Russia and China, and his final piece for us, on March 21, criticized Sen. Chuck Schumer’s recent speech attacking Israel’s government in a time of war.
As a man of independent mind, he became active in the No Labels movement as it attempted to find a ballot alternative to Mr. Biden and Donald Trump this year. He was adamant that he didn’t want such a candidate to be a spoiler. A younger Joe Lieberman would have been the ideal No Labels candidate.
When he died he was only nine months older than Mr. Biden. Joe Lieberman was the kind of conviction politician America could use more of today in both parties.
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