Joe Lieberman ascended to national prominence by building bridges. He reached the pinnacle by becoming the Democratic nominee for vice president in 2000. Then he spent 10 years burning bridges.
Ultimately, Lieberman’s most celebrated bridge — between America’s non-Christian, non-establishment minorities and the highest office of the land — will be his legacy, say both friends and critics.
The U.S. senator from Connecticut, perhaps the nation’s best-known independent, announced last month that he would not be running for re-election in 2012.
At a recent appearance in Hartford, Lieberman acknowledged he had made history.
“I can’t help but also think about my four grandparents and the journey they traveled more than a century ago,” he said. “Even they could not have dreamed that their grandson would end up a United States senator and, incidentally, a barrier-breaking candidate for vice president.”
“First Jewish candidate on a major ticket” will be the Lieberman legacy to outlast all others, said Ira Forman, the former director of the National Jewish Democratic Council.
Lieberman, an Orthodox Jew, had come to that point through a reputation of independence — but also one of reconciling the seemingly irreconcilable.
In 1998, he excoriated President Clinton for his affair with intern Monica Lewinsky. The speech was shocking, but it was credited with salvaging Clinton’s presidency when the Senate rejected the U.S. House of Representatives’ impeachment. Through a Democrat’s blast at a Democratic president, Lieberman seemed to have punished Clinton enough.
Lieberman’s reputation for outreach to the other side defined his Senate career since he arrived in 1989, having been elected after serving as Connecticut’s attorney general.
His breaking with Democratic ranks in backing the first Persian Gulf War in 1991 helped him later in the decade, when he rallied Republicans to support Clinton’s military actions in Kosovo.
In 1992, when Clinton’s campaign was cold-shouldering Arab Americans, the community reached out to Lieberman, despite differences with him over Israeli-Palestinian issues, because of his reputation for fairness.
Yet at his pinnacle — running for vice president — signs emerged of how the subsequent decade would play. He delivered an ineffective performance in his debate with Dick Cheney, George W. Bush’s running mate.
The turning point came after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, when the Bush administration campaigned to make a case for war against Iraq.
Like many Democrats, Lieberman backed war. But while many of his Democratic colleagues came to regret their decision, he stuck by it, and even made it the centerpiece of his 2004 campaign for the presidency.
Lieberman’s support for the war led liberal Democrats to descend on Connecticut to back his anti-war opponent, Ned Lamont. Lamont won the primary. Lieberman ran as an independent and won with votes from the GOP and independents.
Then he announced that he’d back his friend Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) in the 2008 presidential election.
After the election, President Obama made it clear that he wanted Lieberman to stay on his side. So Lieberman maintained chairmanship of the Homeland Security committee while caucusing with Democrats.
His relationship with Obama remained cordial but tense. Lieberman led in criticizing Obama’s approach to Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking as overly confrontational when Obama met last May with Jewish lawmakers.
Lieberman maintained his independence until the end. His career cap was a nod to his more liberal sensibilities.
In the final weeks of 2010, he enabled repeal in the Senate of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” rule that had made it impossible for gays to serve openly in the U.S. military. Gay rights activists noticed that Lieberma stuck out the vote even though it took place on a Shabbat.
Yet that also was a bridge burner. When Lieberman a few nights later attended a Republican Jewish Coalition party celebrating the GOP’s win of the U.S. House of Representatives, one GOP donor to Lieberman’s 2006 campaign confronted him and said he would never again give him money because of his role in the “don’t ask” repeal.
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