Guess I Should Say Something Nice About Joe Lieberman

The living deserve our respect. The dead deserve the truth.

Joe Lieberman, former senator and insomnia-curing vice presidential candidate, died in New York City on Wednesday. He’d just turned 82 on February 24. He reportedly fell in his Bronx home and was later pronounced dead in a Manhattan hospital. President Joe Biden is almost 82, so we can expect right-wing media to remind us that Biden could also die in a fall if he hasn’t already.

Lieberman was founding chairman of the centrist No Labels group that seems dedicated to helping elect Donald Trump to a democracy-ending second term. Lieberman was interviewed a few days ago about the absurd “unity ticket” that No Labels threatens to unleash. He didn’t look well, as opposed to Biden. It’s a crazy notion, I know, but not all old people are the same.

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Lieberman insisted that No Labels spoke for the squishy “middle” in U.S. politics, which both major political parties ignore. That’s a true statement except for all the lies. Yes, the Democratic Party has shifted to the left on certain issues, but most Americans support their policies. That’s a stark contrast to the GOP, which seeks to impose white Christian fascist rule through a far-right judiciary.

He claimed that No Labels’ “bipartisan unity ticket” is a rational response to another Biden/Trump rematch and “America can do better.” A president running for re-election is fairly normal. An indicted, confirmed rapist running for dictator is the real existential threat.

But Lieberman was consumed with an irrational contempt for the Democratic Party, going back to when he lost the 2006 Democratic Senate primary and ran for re-election as a sore loser independent with the support of George W. Bush.

Lieberman detailed in his book The Centrist Solution how Karl Rove contacted him after he lost the primary and said, “The ‘Boss’ asked me to call you ... he knows that the political problems you are having are because you have stayed strong on the war in Iraq. So, he wanted me to tell you that if you lose today and run in November, we will help you in any way we can.”

Bush might’ve helped Lieberman keep his seat because of Iraq but this would later pay significant dividends for the GOP just three years later when Democrats tried to pass major health care legislation.

Lieberman’s greatest misses

Back in 1998, Lieberman lectured Bill Clinton for his blowjob felonies on the Senate floor.

In this case, the president apparently had extramarital relations with an employee half his age and did so in the workplace in the vicinity of the Oval Office. Such behavior is not just inappropriate. It is immoral. And it is harmful, for it sends a message of what is acceptable behavior to the larger American family — particularly to our children — which is as influential as the negative messages communicated by the entertainment culture.

If you doubt that, just ask America’s parents about the intimate and frequently unseemly sexual questions their young children have been asking them and discussing since the president's relationship with Ms. Lewinsky became public seven months ago. I have had many of those conversations with parents, particularly in Connecticut, and from them I conclude that parents across our country feel much as I do that something very sad and sordid has happened in American life when I cannot watch the news on television with my 10-year-old daughter anymore.

It seemed absurd to me when people complained about not being able to watch the news with their small children. I write about politics professionally and I still preferred catching reruns of I Dream Of Jeannie while my parents watched the evening news. U.S. presidents bomb other nations and no one suggests small children are traumatized by such news. The only deaths during Clinton’s blow jobs were the metaphorical, little ones.

Al Gore would pick Lieberman as his running mate in 2000. It’s great that he made history as the first Jewish vice presidential nominee, and he also demonstrated that two men from different religious backgrounds could nonetheless unite and bore voters equally. Viewers of the vice presidential debate mostly agreed that Dick Cheney ran circles around him. Lieberman’s documented work attacking the record industry, especially rock and hip-hop, didn’t endear him to young voters, either.

Lieberman was a war hawk and eagerly supported the Bush administration’s disastrous invasion of Iraq. When he ran for president in 2004, he boasted about his pro-Iraq War position during a Democratic debate.

“I am the only person on this stage who has unwaveringly supported the removal of Saddam Hussein and our troops who are there carrying out that mission, which, yes, has made us a lot safer than we would be with Saddam in power instead of in prison,” he said, also conflating supporting a bad war with supporting the troops.

True to form, Barack Obama posted a generous message about Lieberman on social media. It says a lot about Obama as a leader and a man, considering that Lieberman actively campaigned against Obama, the first Black Democratic presidential nominee. You could argue that Lieberman prioritized his friendship with John McCain over party politics, but elections aren’t social events. The outcome would have a significant impact on the country. Aside from Lieberman’s hawkish foreign policy, a McCain presidency would’ve derailed almost everything Lieberman had claimed to support, including abortion rights, environmental protections, LGBTQ rights and gun safety. He must’ve really loved bombing random nations.

Michael Adov at New York Magazine wrote in 2008 that “Lieberman is poised to become a major spoiler for the Democrats, delivering votes in at least one critical swing state (he’s been trolling Florida for Jewish support) and bolstering McCain’s centrist appeal nationwide.” McCain was not in fact a centrist and Lieberman knew from personal experience how important Florida was in a presidential campaign. (Obama would win Florida twice.)

Lieberman’s supposed principles have been overstated, as vengeance seemed like more of a personal motivator than actual ideology. He resented Democrats for not supporting him in 2006 and wanted to make them pay.

Most liberals blame Lieberman for denying Americans the same quality of health care he enjoyed. During negotiations for the Affordable Care Act, Lieberman threatened to filibuster the health care bill if it included a public option, claiming it would only cause “trouble for taxpayers, for the premium payers and for the national debt.” It was argued that Lieberman was simply making a power play and wanted to feel like he’d left his mark on the final bill. If that was true, it’s a paltry legacy.

In fairness, I don’t think killing the public option is the worst thing Lieberman ever did, especially when compared to his repeated false claims that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. He was either incredibly gullible or a willful liar. Either way, he never expressed regret. Oh the other hand, he at least voted for the Affordable Care Act, which all of his Republican friends opposed (even Olympia Snowe, whose vote Democrats actively courted). Ironically, McCain’s obituaries all mention how he helped save health care for millions, while Lieberman’s obituaries describe him as “Iraq War cheerleader” and “public option killer.” This is what centrism gets you. You never really please anyone and are usually remembered for your worst actions.

Coincidentally, Kyrsten Sinema’s Senate career ends this year after a single term. Fifteen years ago, she openly criticized Lieberman, but her own feckless centrism makes Lieberman’s career seem almost impressive.

The looming question, toward the end of his life, was whether Lieberman was a conservative Democrat who couldn’t adjust in a post-Obama party (he wasn’t the only white male Democrat with that problem) or if he was a moderate Republican who could never survive in a radicalized MAGA GOP. He was once billed as one of the “Three Amigos of Bipartisanship” along with McCain and Lindsey Graham. MAGA viciously rejected McCain, and Graham surrendered his soul for proximity to power. Meanwhile, his former Senate colleague and fellow institutionalist Joe Biden is the current Democratic president — not Bernie Sanders or Jesse Jackson. Somehow that wasn’t good enough and the threat Trump poses to democracy wasn’t sufficient for him to bury his differences with the party and actively help Democrats when it matters the most.

That’s the true legacy Lieberman leaves behind.

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