STAMFORD, Conn. — Addressing a crowd of more than 800 on Friday, former Vice President Al Gore and Connecticut’s top political leaders lauded former Sen. Joseph Lieberman as a model of bipartisanship and personal goodwill who could transcend politics and policy disputes.

While a few speakers gently alluded to the career-spanning rifts that sent Lieberman from the Democratic party’s left wing to its right and then out altogether, the heart of Connecticut Democratic leadership past and present took turns describing him as “a mensch” who put his integrity above other concerns.

“Joe and I had served alongside each other in the United States Senate for 22 years. In all those years together, never was there a cross word between us,” retired U.S. Sen. Christopher Dodd told mourners at the Congregation Agudath Sholom in Stamford.

Describing Lieberman as “ferociously independent,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal said, “Over the years that I watched Joe disagree with colleagues and disagree with me, he was never, ever disagreeable. He had a gift for differing but never dividing. When he and I differed, we ended our conversations with a smile. He truly believed in civility.”

Lieberman died Wednesday at 82, his death sending ripples through the Democratic Party in Connecticut, where he’d become a star through six years as attorney general, three terms as a senator, and an unsuccessful run for vice president on Gore’s ticket in 2000.

But his gradual rightward shift made him so unpopular with many Democrats, especially progressives, that the party rejected his bid for a fourth term in the Senate in 2006. Nevertheless, he won in the general election as a third-party candidate. The rift turned into a complete divide in 2008, when Lieberman endorsed John McCain for president, spoke at the Republican National Convention and largely become persona non grata with many Democrats nationwide.

All of that was put aside Friday morning, when Gore, Blumenthal, Sen. Chris Murphy, Gov. Ned Lamont, U.S. Reps. John Larson and Rosa DeLauro along with Dodd and former Gov. Dannel Malloy — all Democrats — gathered to laud Lieberman.

“Few people in our world ended up making a bigger mark than Joe Lieberman,” Murphy said. “He was a giant to me growing up and entering Connecticut politics.”

Murphy reminded the crowd that Lieberman had staked out many progressive stances long before they were popular.

“The climate change bill we passed in 2022 has many fathers, but one is Joe Lieberman, who led climate before many others were willing. Federal law now protects same-sex marriage; that would not be possible if Joe Lieberman did not push for gay rights when few others were willing,” Murphy said.

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