Long career in politics

Lieberman made history in 2000 as the first Jewish person to be nominated on a major political ticket when Democrat Al Gore chose him to be the vice presidential nominee. Even years later, Lieberman said he was amazed at the high-profile people he met while on the campaign trail.

At the end of his U.S. Senate career, Lieberman sat for a long interview with the Courant in his Washington, D.C., office.

“In the long term, probably the biggest contribution I’ve been able to make to the country and my state,” Lieberman said, was “all of the post 9/11 reform and reorganization of our government to deal with this unconventional challenge to our security, represented by Islamist terrorism — the Department of Homeland Security, which I co-sponsored; the 9/11 Commission, which (John) McCain and I introduced and created; and then all of the 9/11 legislation, which reformed and reorganized the intelligence community in the most significant reform since the beginning of the Cold War in the late 1940s, that created the director of national intelligence and national counterterrorism.”

Lieberman explained his unusual career path by saying that “the unimaginable happened in 2000” to launch an unpredictable series of events.

“Trust me, it was beyond unimaginable that I would be considered as a Republican vice presidential candidate and perhaps have the opportunity to take a unique place in history to have run for vice president on two different party tickets — and to have lost twice,” Lieberman said. “God saved me from that — or the Republican delegates saved me from that.”

Lieberman’s evolution over the years brought him a series of new friends and supporters, including former U.S. Sen. John McCain, President George W. Bush, and Fox News commentator Sean Hannity. It also brought him a small army of political enemies who coalesced around a previously unknown anti-war candidate named Ned Lamont to defeat Lieberman in the 2006 U.S. Senate primary.

But Lieberman says he was vindicated with his greatest political victory in November 2006, made possible by a coalition largely made up of Republicans and independents. That proved to be his final campaign in a career that is now closing after 40 years in public service, including 24 years in the U.S. Senate.

In Connecticut, many liberal Democrats increasingly soured on Lieberman’s hawkish stances on defense and his support of Republican views. He was at his peak when he made history as the first Jewish American on a major party ticket, but his later views on the war in Iraq prompted many Democrats to deride him as a controversial and divisive figure.

Lieberman supporters believe it was the Democratic Party — more than Lieberman — that changed through the years, as evidenced by the party’s blistering opposition to the Iraq war.

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