Joe Lieberman, the first Jewish vice-presidential nominee of a major party, whose conscience and independent streak later led him on a journey away from his home in the Democratic Party, has died at 82, according to a statement from his family. The former Connecticut senator passed away Wednesday due to complications from a fall in New York. His wife Hadassah and members of his family were by his side.
The peak of Lieberman’s political career came when he was chosen by Democratic presidential nominee Al Gore in 2000 as his running mate. The disputed election was eventually decided by the Supreme Court in favor of then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush. Lieberman had hailed his selection as a historic breakthrough for Jewish Americans.
On many issues, like abortion and economic policy, Lieberman was a mainstream Democrat. He will be remembered as one of the last major statesmen of an era when true bipartisanship felt possible in Washington, before today’s polarized times.
In his farewell speech to the Senate in 2012, Lieberman bemoaned what politics had become. “It is the partisan polarization of our politics which prevents us from making the principled compromises on which progress in a democracy depends, and right now, which prevents us from restoring our fiscal solvency as a nation,” Lieberman said. “We need bipartisan leadership to break the gridlock in Washington that will unleash all the potential that is in the American people.”
Lieberman’s political evolution accelerated in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, attacks. His hawkish instincts on foreign policy put him increasingly at odds with his own party, and he was a strong supporter of the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, which led to a prolonged conflict that many of his fellow Democrats came to oppose.
He mounted his own campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2004, but the run failed to take off, further increasing his distance from the party’s core base voters after he refused to repudiate the war in Iraq. That position also led to him losing the Democratic primary for his own seat in 2006. But he ran as an independent anyway and won the election, returning to the Senate.
In 2008, Lieberman infuriated Democrats even more by showing up at the Republican National Convention in support of his dear friend, Arizona Sen. John McCain, that year’s Republican presidential nominee. Many Democrats perceived an act of treachery when he criticized Sen. Barack Obama, the Democratic nominee, as “a gifted and eloquent young man” but warned that he was too inexperienced to be president.
McCain, who died in 2018 and was eulogized by Lieberman, later admitted that he wished he had chosen Lieberman as the vice presidential nominee on his ticket instead of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, whose selection sparked an extraordinary outburst of support from the Republican base but later became a liability as her deep inexperience on the national stage harmed McCain’s losing campaign.
Lieberman’s move to the right represented an intriguing political reinvention. But perhaps it should not have been a complete surprise.
After years of diligent service in the Senate, Lieberman rocketed to public attention in 1998 during the scandal over President Bill Clinton’s affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. In a stunning public condemnation of Clinton by a fellow Democrat, Lieberman slammed his friend’s behavior as “immoral,” “disgraceful” and deserving of “public rebuke and accountability.” His speech from the Senate floor was seen by many Democrats at the time as an act of disloyalty. Still, Lieberman later voted after a Senate trial not to convict Clinton for high crimes and misdemeanors after he was impeached by the House of Representatives.
While Lieberman alienated many Democrats with his speech – it was also instrumental in then-Vice President Gore’s decision to choose him as his running mate. Gore wanted to signal to Americans that while he was embracing the popular Clinton legacy, especially on the economy, he did not approve of the former president’s personal conduct in a campaign that Bush was shaping as an attempt to restore “honor and dignity” to the White House.
Lieberman will also be remembered for his proud observance of his Orthodox Jewish faith, declining to work on Shabbat. But he famously made an exception in 2009, walking five miles from Georgetown to the US Capitol to vote against a Republican attempt to cut Medicare spending.
In his final years, Lieberman was angering Democrats yet again. He was the founding chairman of the No Labels Group that has been considering an independent presidential ticket that may Democrats fear could splinter President Joe Biden’s vote.
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