It was a privilege to know Senator Joe Lieberman.
When I was prosecuting terrorists, he was one of the few who saw that we were dealing with a jihadist war, not a crime wave. And after 9/11, he was a friend — someone who treated me like I was the teacher, when I was really the student. That’s the gift of effective statesmen.
Senator Lieberman worked with national-security hawks on both sides to fashion an effective government response tailored to the threat to the United States as it really was. He was dedicated to the protection of our country and wouldn’t get trapped in Obama-era delusions that our response to our enemies, rather than our enemies, was the problem.
He and I disagreed a lot. I couldn’t help but be flattered that my disagreement mattered to him; and if we were in different places on national security, I’d feel that I needed to retrace my steps.
Joe Lieberman was a committed liberal Democrat. Outside homeland defense, I would have fought him on pretty much everything. And yet, if the Senate were filled with 100 Joe Liebermans, that would be a coup. He loved our country — not for what it could be in someone’s imagination, but for what it is in the here and now.
Such a great American patriot. Requiescat in pace.