Joseph Lieberman, R.I.P.

Joseph Lieberman, four-term U.S. senator from Connecticut, was noteworthy for two reasons, one of special interest to this magazine, the other of interest to the nation. In 1988 WFB, a Connecticut resident, had had it with Senator Lowell Weicker who, besides being politically undesirable — he was a liberal Republican — was gaseous and vain. Democrats had taken control of the Senate two years earlier so keeping a nominal R no longer mattered. Bill accordingly endorsed Joe Lieberman, the Democratic state attorney general. The two had met as fellow editors of the Yale Daily News and become friends, though they matriculated years apart. Lieberman’s views were relatively moderate, tempered by his Orthodox Jewish faith and his commitment to a robust foreign policy. Bill formed a humorous PAC, Buckleys for Lieberman, wrote a column in his support, and encouraged Pat to hand out pro-Lieberman bumper stickers at the local supermarket. It was Bill’s last personal intervention in politics, and among his most successful.

As a senator, Lieberman was liberal enough to be Al Gore’s running mate in 2000 (his religious orthodoxy was not strong enough to make him pro-life). But then came 9/11, and after that the Iraq War. Lieberman had become the friend of Senator John McCain, and, like him, he supported the Iraq War and the surge. Such views made him a pariah in his own party. In 2006, he was beaten in the Democratic Senate primary by Greenwich liberal Ned Lamont. Lieberman, running as an independent, held onto his seat (WFB endorsed him once again, even though he had come to oppose the Iraq War himself). Two years later, Lieberman endorsed McCain for president — as dramatic a partisan swing as any in U.S. politics.