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RIP Joe Lieberman — 28 Comments

  1. Lieberman was the kind of Democrat I admire. Principles before backstabbing. Governance before burning the Constitution.

  2. Yes, Senator Lieberman was a gentleman with principles. Condolences to his family and friends. RIP.

  3. Depressing indeed. He was one of the classic Democrats, and they are now an endangered breed due to the leftist surge. I wonder how Zell Miller is doing?

    His all but demonization on the left was one of my first indicators at how cutthroat and dark the Dems were turning.

  4. Yeah, I disagreed with his politics, obviously, but would have considered voting for him, anyway, because, when he split with the dems over Iraq, he demonstrated that rarest of qualities in politicians, “principles”.

    That might well be the only thing I ever agreed with him on. But I did respect that he told the Left to GFT.

  5. yes indeed Fetterman with his chip upgrade, seems to be one the ones picking up the Torch, at least on some issues, part of the reason he lost was the strong opposition of a vocal cadre of islamists, like those that Norquist had invited into the like Saffuri, which lead to to Abdurahman Alamoudi, and Sami Al Arian, who pushed some dangerous notions unconducive to public policy, of course Michael Moore, the Mouth of the Flint River,* blamed my paisans in South Florida
    ,
    even though he probably voted for the Nader or the raving looney candidate, to the left,

    re the discussion of the Russian deep state, and ours, one would think many years ago, that was a crazy notion, and some conjectures do seem daft, but then other elements have more purchase, so why were the 28 pages left out of the 9-11 commission report, for instance their inclusion might have prevented the manifestation of the worst of the denialists,

  6. Although I was unhappy with Lieberman when he loyally went along with the attempted subversion of the 2000 Florida results, he was otherwise a principled and honest Democrat. We miss those. RIP, and condolences to his family.

  7. Huh.

    If someone had asked me, I would have guessed he was now between 89 and 93 based on his looks last I saw of him in the news.

    Surprised, I searched for “Young” Joe Lieberman, but could not find an image of him where he did not look like either a college kid or an older man.

    However when it came to character, I would agree with the impression the others voiced. Of generally good character, but perhaps somewhat tame.

  8. A life well lived. RIP.
    I believe that he lived by his principles, and that is good and sufficient.

  9. he was a part of the reform left, with regards to nuclear proliferations, he evolved to roughly the position of Scoop Jackson, and Patrick Moynihan, although the latter evolved out of that position, this is where the Neocons arose out of

  10. The last Democrat I voted for. It was so sad what the party did to him, and Zell Miller. The two marked the last of the rational Democrats. RIP.

  11. An old-school Democrat of the type my parents supported. RIP.

    His widow Hadassah has an interesting life story. She was born in Prague to Holocaust survivors and grew up in Gardner, a factory town in central Massachusetts. Her father was the rabbi of Congregation Ohave Shalom on Pleasant Street in Gardner:

    https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=152701

    I rented a room just down the street from the old synagogue when I was working at the Simplex Time Recorder Company one summer in the early 1980s. Another landmark on that street was Stanley’s Lunch, a Polish lunch place and bar whose interior looked like it hadn’t changed since it opened in 1934, right after Prohibition. Dark wooden booths, linoleum floors, glass cigarette case, and a colorized portrait of FDR on the wall. Mrs. Piontek did the cooking in the back kitchen; her son Michael worked the counter and kept the radio tuned to a classic jazz station out of Boston. I made a point of stopping in whenever I was visiting family in western Massachusetts. Gone now, just like the synagogue.

    Another former politician with a connection to Gardner’s Jewish community is Jason Chaffetz. Chaffetz’s paternal grandfather Max was born in Gardner, as was Max’s brother Hammond. Max was an FBI special agent; Hammond was a federal prosecutor and later a partner at Kirkland & Ellis. Chaffetz was raised Jewish but joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints while at BYU. He’s also related to the Dukakis family.

  12. We would benefit from Democrats who respect procedural norms and don’t fancy public institutions are their property. Not many around. This makes the future of constitutional government precarious in this country.

  13. @Neo

    Woof on my part. Alas, we will have reason to miss people like them in the years to come.

  14. A Gentleman, with Principles.
    Still young.
    Today if he were still active in Politics the Left would call him a MAGA.
    I think I read a recent remark he made about Israel and Biden. Not sure.

  15. @ Hubert > “An old-school Democrat of the type my parents supported”

    Whenever I would talk to people with basically conservative political views who nonetheless voted straight Democrat, they seemed to be of the old-school themselves, and hadn’t kept up with the news that their Party was no longer what it used to be.
    As Turtler remarked: “His all but demonization on the left was one of my first indicators at how cutthroat and dark the Dems were turning.”

    It is telling that the Democrats don’t restrict their demonizing just to Republicans, isn’t it?

  16. Follow up this morning: I didn’t see one instance of the announcement of his death on ANY of the newsfeeds I follow; both right and left except for Newsmax which posted a statement from Guiliani….incredible.

  17. Well…Lieberman DID, after all, insult (as in, told the truth about) “Biden” (via “his” M.C., in this case, Chuck “Schemer” Schumer).

    (People have been canceled for far less…)

  18. AesopFan: “It is telling that the Democrats don’t restrict their demonizing just to Republicans, isn’t it?” It is. It reminds me of how the Stalinist generation in the Soviet Union ruthlessly purged the Old Bolsheviks. All that matters is power (and the material perks that go with it of course). I used to have that argument with my late father, who was slow to recognize that the Democrat Party had been taken over by the hard Left. In fact, Lieberman was one of the counter-examples he’d point to.

    Dad didn’t vote straight Democrat. A WWII vet and a Cold War anti-communist, he was tough-minded about national security and had no patience with left-wing blame-America-first nonsense. I know he voted for Nixon in 1972; and I’m pretty sure he voted Republican in 2004, 2008, and 2012.

  19. Jason Chaffetz’s father’s first wife was Kitty Dukakis. The Dukakis’s eldest son, John, was actually John Chaffetz’s son, so there was more closeness between the two families living on opposite sides of the country than their often is after a divorce. Jason’s mother was Mormon, so I don’t think he was a convert to that faith.

    I saw Joe Lieberman once, and I knew his ex-wife. She had tried to help her divorced friend find someone new, and that someone ended up to be her own husband. My impression was that she was not a very happy woman, and that maybe her ex’s “Holy Joe” persona may have irritated her.

    Lieberman defeated Republican Lowell Weicker to become Senator. He benefited from the support of William F. Buckley, who despised Weicker and wanted him out. Both Lieberman and Weicker ended their careers being rejected by many in their own parties and running as independents. Lieberman was certainly better than Weicker, who after promising not to give Connecticut an income tax, gave Connecticut an income tax.

  20. What does it say about us as a nation that we are impressed when we discover one of our elected officials is principled and honest? Sad.

  21. He spoke against the party line often.

    When push came to shove, he voted against convicting Bill Clinton.

    I fondly remember the SORE/LOSERMAN mocking campaign signs which appeared, after Al Gore prematurely conceded the Presidential election, and then changed his mind.

    In this period there was reportedly a “preppy riot,” but a quick search engine query doesn’t show any results.

  22. Abraxas: “She had tried to help her divorced friend find someone new, and that someone ended up to be her own husband. My impression was that she was not a very happy woman, and that maybe her ex’s “Holy Joe” persona may have irritated her.”

    Ouch. I did not know that. I assume the “may have” is deliberate understatement. I’m sure Lieberman’s image as a devout mensch must have grated on his ex-wife.

    I got the info on Chaffetz’s religious affiliations via links to archived articles in the LA Times and The Forward. The Forward piece’s title: “The House GOP’s Jewish Mormon”. Complicated family history.

    If they could make “A Yank at Oxford”, why not “A Jew at BYU”? Maybe AesopFan has some contacts in the LDS filmmaking community; and BYU is supposed to have a pretty good film program. Picture it: Larry David meets Neil LaBute.

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