U.S. Senate
Tenure Lieberman was first elected to the
United States Senate as a Democrat in the
1988 election, defeating liberal Republican
Lowell Weicker by a margin of 10,000 votes. He scored the nation's biggest political upset that year, after being backed by a coalition of Democrats and unaffiliated voters with support from conservative
Republicans, most notably including
National Review founder and
Firing Line host
William F. Buckley Jr. and his brother, former New York Senator
James L. Buckley, who were disappointed in three-term Republican incumbent Weicker's liberal voting record and personal style. During the campaign, he received support from Connecticut's
Cuban American community, which was unhappy with Weicker. Thereafter, Lieberman remained firmly anti-Castro. Shortly after his first election to the Senate, Lieberman was approached by
George J. Mitchell, the incoming
Majority Leader who advised him, "Pick out two or three areas that you're really interested in and learn them so that your colleagues know what you're talking about ... You're going to have more influence even as a freshman than you think because you know there's hundreds of issues and inevitably we rely on each other." Recalling the conversation, Lieberman said "that was true when I first came in, although you could see partisanship beginning to eat away at that. But at the end of my 24 years, it was really so partisan that it was hard to make the combinations to get to 60 votes to break a filibuster to get things done." and his national security team on
Air Force One to
Bosnia in 1997 In 1994, Lieberman made history by winning by the largest landslide ever in a Connecticut Senate race, drawing 67 percent of the vote and beating his opponent by more than 350,000 votes. In 1998, Lieberman was the first prominent Democrat to publicly challenge Clinton for the judgment exercised in his
affair with
Monica Lewinsky; however, he voted against removing Clinton from office by
impeachment. Of his criticism of
Bill Clinton, Lieberman said in 2014: It was a very hard thing for me to do because I liked him but I really felt what he did was awful and that unless I felt myself if I didn't say something, I'd be a
hypocrite. I also felt that if somebody who was supportive of him didn't say something, it would not be good. And so it got a lot of attention. I got a call from
Erskine Bowles who was
Chief of Staff about three or four days later saying that he was going to express an opinion which wasn't universally held at the
White House – he thought I helped the president by bursting the boil, that was the metaphor he used. The following Sunday morning, I'm at home and the phone rings, it's the White House. And it's now about a week and a couple of days since I made the speech. The president says, it was the president, "I just want you to know that there's nothing you said in that speech that I don't agree with. And I want you to know that I'm working on it." And we talked for about forty-five minutes. It was amazing.
Vice presidential campaign Lieberman's 2000 Senate campaign was concurrent with
that year's presidential election. In August 2000, Vice President Al Gore announced that he had selected Lieberman as his vice presidential running mate. Lieberman became the first practicing
Jew to run for the nation's second-highest office. Lieberman was selected from a group of potential running mates that reportedly included Senators
John Kerry and
John Edwards, the team that would form the Democratic presidential ticket
four years later. Lieberman had a reputation of being a more ideologically conservative Democrat than Gore. Because of Lieberman's criticism of Clinton's personal behavior, some viewed Gore's choice of Lieberman as a way to distance himself from the scandals of the Clinton White House. The Gore–Lieberman ticket was defeated in a hard-fought election that was contested for weeks after the vote. On December 12, a
U.S. Supreme Court ruling brought the race to an official end,
confirming the decision in the favor of the
Bush-Cheney ticket.
Ned Lamont, a
Greenwich businessman and antiwar candidate. Lamont received 33 percent of the delegates' votes at the Connecticut Democratic Convention in May, forcing an August primary. In July, Lieberman announced that he would file papers to appear on the November ballot should he lose the primary, saying, "I'm a loyal Democrat, but I have loyalties that are greater than those to my party, and that's my loyalty to my state and my country." He said he would continue to sit as a Democrat in the Senate even if he was defeated in the primary and elected on an unaffiliated line, and expressed concern for a potentially low turnout. On July 10, the Lieberman campaign officially filed paperwork allowing him to collect signatures for the newly formed
Connecticut for Lieberman party ballot line. On August 8, 2006, Lieberman conceded the
Democratic primary election to Ned Lamont, saying, "For the sake of our state, our country and my party, I cannot and will not let that result stand," and announced he would run in the
2006 November election as an independent candidate on the
Connecticut for Lieberman ticket, against both Lamont and the Republican candidate,
Alan Schlesinger.
General election Polls after the primary showed Lieberman leading by varying margins.
Alan Schlesinger barely registered support, and his campaign had run into problems based on alleged gambling debts. According to columnist
Steve Kornacki, Lieberman was therefore "able to run in the general election as the de facto Republican candidate – every major Republican office-holder in the state endorsed him – and to supplement that GOP base with strong support from independents." On August 9, 2006,
Hillary Clinton, the junior
U.S. senator from New York, affirmed her pledge to support the primary winner, saying "voters of Connecticut have made their decision and I think that decision should be respected", and
Howard Dean called for Lieberman to quit the race, saying he was being "disrespectful of Democrats and disrespectful of the Democratic Party". On August 10, in his first campaign appearance since losing the Democratic primary, referencing the
2006 transatlantic aircraft plot, Lieberman criticized Lamont, saying: "If we just pick up like Ned Lamont wants us to do, get out [of Iraq] by a date certain, it will be taken as a tremendous victory by the same people who wanted to blow up these planes in this plot hatched in England. It will strengthen them and they will strike again." Lamont noted Lieberman's position was similar to
George W. Bush and
Dick Cheney's position. Lamont said, "That comment sounds an awful lot like Vice President Cheney's comment on Wednesday. Both of them believe our invasion of Iraq has a lot to do with 9/11. That's a false premise." Former New York mayor
Rudy Giuliani praised Lieberman at a
South Carolina campaign stop on August 18, saying he was "a really exceptional senator". Five Democratic senators maintained their support for Lieberman, and Lieberman also received the strong support of former senator and Democratic stalwart
Bob Kerrey, who offered to stump for him. Democratic minority leader Harry Reid, while endorsing Lamont, promised Lieberman that he would retain his committee positions and seniority if he prevailed in the general election. On August 28, Lieberman campaigned at the same motorcycle rally as Republican Congressman
Christopher Shays. Shays told a crowd of motorcycle enthusiasts, "We have a national treasure in Joe Lieberman."
Mel Sembler, a former
Republican National Committee finance chairman, helped organize a reception that raised a "couple hundred thousand dollars" for Lieberman, who was personally in attendance. Sembler is a prominent Republican who chaired
I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby's legal defense fund. New York Mayor
Michael Bloomberg held a fundraiser for Lieberman at his home in November, co-hosted by former mayor
Ed Koch and former Senator
Alfonse M. D'Amato. Koch called Lieberman "one of the greatest Senators we've ever had in the Senate." Despite still considering himself a Democrat, Lieberman was endorsed by numerous Republicans who actively spoke out in favor of his candidacy. Lieberman was also the focus of websites such as ConservativesforLieberman06.com. On November 7, Lieberman won re-election with 50% of the vote.
Ned Lamont garnered 40% of ballots cast and
Alan Schlesinger won 10%. Lieberman received support from 33% of Democrats, 54% of independents and 70% of Republicans.
Creation of Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Chairman Lieberman and Ranking Member
Susan Collins address bipartisan suggestion on countermeasures toward
Islamist extremism and
domestic terrorism in U.S. When control of the Senate switched from Republicans to Democrats in June 2001, Lieberman became Chairman of the
Governmental Affairs Committee, with oversight responsibilities for a broad range of government activities. He was also a member of the
Environment and Public Works Committee and chair of its
Subcommittee Clean Air, Wetlands and Private Property; the
Armed Services Committee, where he chaired the
Airland Subcommittee and sat on the
Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities; and the
Small Business Committee. When Republicans gained control of the Senate in January 2003, Lieberman resumed his role as ranking minority member of the committees he had once chaired. Lieberman was an early supporter of the creation of the
Department of Homeland Security as the chairman of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, proposing organizing
FEMA, the
U.S. Customs Service, the
U.S. Border Patrol, the
U.S. Coast Guard, and other agencies under the new department. This proposal was eventually implemented in the
Homeland Security Act of 2002. In 2006, Senators Lieberman and Collins drafted legislation to reshape the
Federal Emergency Management Agency into an agency that would more effectively prepare for and respond to catastrophes, including natural disasters and terrorist attacks. The legislation elevated FEMA to special status within the Department of Homeland Security, much like the
Coast Guard and designated FEMA's head to be the president's point person during an emergency. The bill also called for the reunification of FEMA's preparedness and response functions, giving it responsibility for all phases of emergency management. In addition, the measure strengthened FEMA's regional offices, creating dedicated interagency "strike teams" to provide the initial federal response to a disaster in the region. The legislation passed Congress in September 2006. As the 2007 hurricane season approached, Lieberman held an oversight hearing on implementation of the FEMA reforms on May 22, 2007. He urged FEMA to implement the reforms at a quicker pace. Lieberman was also involved in congressional oversight of the response to the
H1N1 influenza (swine flu) pandemic and held four hearings on the subject in 2009, including one in Connecticut. At the hearings, he pressed the
United States Department of Health and Human Services to distribute
vaccines and antiviral medications at a quicker pace and to streamline the process. In the 110th Congress, Lieberman was Chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which is responsible for assuring the Federal Government's efficiency and effectiveness. He was also a member of the Environment and Public Works Committee; Senate Armed Services Committee, where he was Chairman of the Subcommittee on Air Land Forces and sat on the Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities; and the Small Business Committee.
Committee assignments talk with Navy Adm.
Mike Mullen,
chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff before a
Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, 2010. •
Committee on Armed Services •
Subcommittee on Airland (chairman) •
Subcommittee on Personnel •
Subcommittee on SeaPower •
Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship •
Committee on Environment and Public Works •
Subcommittee on Private Sector and Consumer Solutions to Global Warming (chairman)
Caucus memberships • Senate Caucus on Global Internet Freedom • Congressional Fire Services Caucus (Co-chair) • Congressional Public Service Caucus (Co-chair) •
International Conservation Caucus ==Presidential election involvement==