“…Lieberman has argued that Clinton has helped lead the Democratic Party and the country his way, at least on many important issues.”

8/07/00 10:30 a..m.
On Joseph Lieberman
Some vital stats on Gore's Veep Choice.

Courtesy of Almanac of American Politics

Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (D) Connecticut
Last Updated November 11, 1999

Elected 1988, seat up 2000
Born: Feb. 24, 1942, Stamford
Home: New Haven
Education: Yale U., B.A. 1964, LL.B. 1967
Religion: Jewish
Marital Status: married (Hadassah)

Career
Political: CT Senate, 1970-80, Majority Ldr., 1974-80; CT Atty. Gen., 1983-88. Professional: Practicing atty., 1964-80

Committees
Armed Services (6th of 9 D):
Airland Forces (RMM); Emerging Threats &Capabilities; Strategic Forces.
Environment & Public Works (6th of 8 D): Clean Air, Wetlands, Private Property & Nuclear Safety; Transportation & Infrastructure.
Governmental Affairs (RMM of 7 D).
Small Business (4th of 8 D).

n his second term Joseph Lieberman has come to occupy a unique place in the Senate, exerting influence out of proportion to his seniority, committee position or political clout, an influence that comes from respect for his independence of mind, civility of spirit and fidelity to causes in which he believes. In a bitterly partisan time he is one of the least partisan Democrats on Capitol Hill, one of the very few Democrats not to engage in lockstep White House defense in the Clinton scandals. Yet Lieberman is anything but a political innocent, and has had close associations with Bill Clinton at different points in his career. He grew up in Stamford, the son of a liquor store owner, went to Yale, became chairman of the Yale Daily News, worked summers for Senator Abraham Ribicoff and the Democratic National Committee. In college he wrote a revealing yet admiring biography of that quintessential political boss John Bailey. He helped found a reform and antiwar Caucus of Connecticut Democrats; in 1970 he ran for state Senate in New Haven against the Senate majority leader, and won with volunteer help from Yale Law student Bill Clinton. In 1980 he ran for an open House seat and lost 52%-46%; in 1982 he was elected attorney general, where he took action against fake charities, crooked car dealers and gouging merchants.

In 1988 Lieberman challenged Senator Lowell Weicker, another maverick, of a different sort. Weicker was well to the left of most Republicans on economic and cultural issues, Lieberman more conservative than most Democrats on cultural issues and foreign policy. Lieberman is an orthodox Jew — he didn't attend the convention that nominated him because it was held on Saturday — and a believer that ''we in government should look to religion as a partner, as I think the Founders of our country did.'' He favored the death penalty and a moment of silence in schools, and opposed Weicker's proposed 30-cent gas tax increase. He ran witty ads, one showing a bear sleeping through work — a nice take-off on the growling but erratic Weicker. Lieberman won 50%-49%; the contest cut across party lines, with Lieberman running well in industrial towns and Weicker in Hartford, college towns and tony towns in Litchfield County.

Lieberman has made a distinctive mark in foreign policy. He was one of the leaders in the fight for the Gulf war resolution in January 1991, and without his earnest but vehement support it might not have passed. Presciently, he called for ''final victory'' over Saddam Hussein. He is a strong supporter of Israel but favored F-15 sales to Saudi Arabia in 1992; in spring 1998 he spoke against an American ultimatum to Israel. He favored U.S. ground troops in Bosnia and action against Bosnian Serb war criminals. He backed NATO expansion in Eastern Europe. In 1998 he successfully led a fight for sanctions to stop Russia from exporting missile technology to Iran.

On economic issues, he has backed capital gains tax cuts for small business (''you can't be pro-jobs and anti-business'') and urged President Clinton to sign the 1996 welfare reform bill — both stands opposed by many Democrats. On HMO regulation, he co-sponsored a compromise that omits Medical Savings Accounts and would allow lawsuits against HMOs, but limit them to economic recovery and attorneys' fees only. He is a sponsor of Auto Choice reform, which would allow car owners to opt out of pain and suffering damages and get much cheaper insurance premiums. On environmental issues, Lieberman supported the Clinton position at the Kyoto air pollution conference but said China has to be part of the solution. He co-sponored the Clean Air Act of 1990 and supports an EPA project to allow companies greater flexibility to achieve specific pollution control goals.

In highly publicized campaigns Lieberman has joined with Book of Virtues author William Bennett and others to denounce obscene entertainment. His goal has been ''to convince people who run the entertainment industry that they have enormous power to shape our culture, to affect our lives, particularly our children's lives.'' In 1995 they criticized gangsta rap records, and shamed Time Warner into selling their Interscope label; in 1998 they said the purchaser, Seagram, failed to keep its promises to clean up the words, and gave it a Silver Sewer award. In 1995 he attacked 10 daytime TV shows as ''trash'' and called on advertisers to avoid them, with some success. In 1998 he objected to government closed-captioning of the Jerry Springer show. He helped get a voluntary video games rating system in 1994 and helped prod the TV networks toward ratings.

Lieberman played a serious role on the Clinton scandals in 1997-98, though he had worked with Clinton in the Democratic Leadership Council and headed the organization those years. First, at the hearings on illegal campaign financing, after John Glenn denounced Chairman Fred Thompson's claims of a Chinese conspiracy to affect the elections, Lieberman read the documents and got Glenn to join him in saying, ''I conclude there was in fact a Chinese government plan to move money into congressional elections last year,'' though he added that there wasn't clear evidence that the presidential election was affected. He was dismayed by Clinton's August 17 speech in which he grudgingly admitted lying about the Lewinsky affair for seven months. When the Senate resumed in September, he took the floor and said, ''Such behavior is not only inappropriate, it is immoral and it is harmful.'' And, ''It is wrong and unacceptable and should be followed by some measure of public rebuke and accountablity.'' But he was persuaded by Minority Leader Tom Daschle not to call for censure, and he stopped well short of backing impeachment or resignation. After the speech he was seconded by Daniel Patrick Moynihan and Bob Kerrey, and he clearly changed the tenor of the public dialogue. Clinton accepted this rebuke, and it may have helped him, by showing other Democrats how to criticize his conduct while still not calling for removal.

As DLC chairman, Lieberman has argued that Clinton has helped lead the Democratic Party and the country his way, at least on many important issues. He has supported Clinton on many important issues — the 1993 tax increase, the 1994 crime bill, the 1996 welfare reform bill, the V-chip, the partial-birth abortion ban veto. He was reelected in Connecticut by a striking 67%-31% margin in the Republican year of 1994, and he should be in good shape for 2000.