Joe Lieberman: Dems’ Man of the Hour on Shabbos on “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” Toeivah Policy

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liebermanIt’s been a while for Sen. Joe Lieberman, but tonight, he’s Democrats’ man of the hour.  The Democrat-turned-independent from Connecticut drove the repeal of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy from sponsorship to the final push across the finish line in a 65-31 vote today, winning over liberal hearts, at least for the moment.”He’s certainly one of my heroes today,” said Aubrey Sarvis, executive director of the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network. “His determination, his tenacity has kept this going all year. This would have not happened without Sen. Lieberman.”

Lieberman, the 2004 Democratic vice presidential nominee, has felt the ire of liberals over the last few years. An antiwar political newcomer, Ned Lamont, toppled him in his 2006 Democratic primary. Lieberman emerged victorious in the general election, running as an independent, and promising to work across party lines to draw down the war in Iraq.

Two years later, Lieberman enraged liberals again, endorsing pro-war Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) for president in 2008, even taking the stage at the 2008 Republican Convention.

He eventually started skipping his party’s weekly caucus meetings.

But today, Shabbos, Lieberman – a devout Jew – became the left’s favorite guy.

Whether his moment will translate into electoral support for Lieberman is another question.

“I have no idea. I really don’t,” Lieberman told POLITICO after the vote. “This is something I’ve been working on for 17 years.”

Public polls taken two months ago show he is extremely unpopular with the Democratic base.

Running as a Republican looks more promising for Lieberman. A Public Policy Polling survey from late October put Lieberman’s approval rating at a dismal 33 percent. Only 24 percent of Democratic voters supported him, while 48 percent of Republicans looked upon him favorably.

“I thought he did a very good job on ‘don’t ask, don’t tell, he deserves credit and praise for it,” said George Jepsen, the Democratic Attorney General-elect in Connecticut. “I don’t think it’s viable for him to run two years from now as a Democrat. I think he would lose a Democratic primary.”

Jepsen, who supported Lamont, said even the repeal of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy won’t help him with the Democratic base if he runs in 2012.

“He supported John McCain for president,” Jepsen said. “Little things like that, you know?”

{Politico/Matzav.com}


48 COMMENTS

  1. A shandeh.

    Truth is, Joe has been doing things like this for a while.

    Is is time to give him mussar and send a clear message against this garbage.

  2. This is a chillul Shabbos, chillul Hashem and advocacy of toeivah.

    This brings us one step closer to cosvim csubah lezichorim.

    Boruch Hashem that he didn’t become vice president where he could have belittled Yiddishkeit even more.

  3. This vote has nothing to do with approval or disapproval of that behavior. It is about allowing people to live as they choose without being discriminated against. We, as a minority living in America, should support all legislation furthering this aim. We know who else was sent to the gas chambers in Nazi Gremany.

  4. #1, u do realize that the Israeli army has no “dont ask dont tell policy”, right? It hasnt been a disaster for Israel and it wont be a disaster for america

  5. At least 25 countries allow toeivahs to serve openly in the armed forces, among them Britain, Canada and Israel, according to the Palm Center, a research institute at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

  6. congratulations america on being one step closer to “liberty and justice for all” no matter how repugnant some may find members of that “all”

  7. I love how some of you people are so quick to condemn the Senator’s “chilul shabbos” without any attempt to be melamed zechus, and ascertain if he was actually mechalel shabbos in any shape or form.

    Commenter #1 – Although a disgusting comment like that can emanate from anyone, regardless of their religion, yours is nonetheless a true chilul hashem, for advertising to the world that an Orthodox Jew can believe that the average person created with such orientation will be a threat his fellow soldiers.

  8. Technical Correction:

    Senator Joseph Lieberman was the Democratic nominee for Vice President in the year 2000 election. The democratic nominee for President was the incumbent Vice President, Albert Gore. (The then incumbent President William Clinton was just finishing his allowed two terms, so for the next term, the incumbent Vice President, Mr. Gore, understandably, attempted to succeed him and thus became the Democratic candidate for President.) As Mr. Gore had, had a long political friendship with Mr. Lieberman, it was not surprising at all that he chose him to be the Democratic candidate for Vice President.

  9. Well said #17. toeiva is against the sheva mitzvos, and even the nochrim are chayiv misa. America has an obligation under the sheva mitzvos to execute any bnei noach who engages in sodomy.

  10. Mazel Tov to Joe Lieberman on his accomplishment and making America a fairer and more just country. To all those spewing hate while calling it religion, what are you so afraid of, it’s not contagious!

  11. B,

    For a Ben Noach circumstantial evidence or a confession is sufficient for a conviction. So effectively, we could round up everyone at a toeiva pride parada, and put them all on death row.

  12. Hey guys, please think twice before commenting negatively. This is just motsei shem rah. I have run into Senator Lieberman on shabbos on more than one occasion. He was sitting in a frum minyan, davening like everyone else.

    He’s shomer shabbos, kashrus… FRUM guy! Do you know what a kiddush hashem it is when the mainstream media has followed him around on shabbos, telling all the world how wonderful our shabbos is and how hard he fights to keep it?

    Please remember that religion and politics are two different things, and while they do overlap they are not one and the same. I would hate to see my own life held up to a microscope, let’s not rush to judgment on someone elses, particularly when you don’t seem to know the facts.

    90% of the jewish population in the US can’t say shema. Are we really going to jump on the most public, shomer shabbos official in this country because of a political view that doesn’t even affect 99% of the frum population?

  13. i just want to point out to the readership what this quote means
    “I have no idea. I really don’t,” Lieberman told POLITICO after the vote. “This is something I’ve been working on for 17 years.”

    What this means is he has been trying to repeal the law DADT for 17 years- he isnt commenting on working on the answer to the question posed to him for 17 years.

  14. Halevay the law of America followed the laws of bnei Noach for the toeiva’niks. After a handful of executions these repulsive ones would not be broadcasting their illness.

  15. (continuation of my previous comment # 19)

    On the Republican side of the 2000 election, the candidate for President was the then incumbent Governor of Texas, George W. Bush, and the candidate for Vice President was the then former Secretary of Defense, Richard Bruce (“Dick”) Cheney.

    The election was the closest in US history, but finally, George Bush and Richard Cheney were declared the winners.

    Soon after they assumed office in January, 2001, on September 11, 2001, were the massive fiendish terrorists attacks on the country. Thus began the “War on Terror.” The first phase was a massive campaign in the country of Afghanistan; it was brilliantly successful as it gave a heavy blow to the Al-Qaeda terrorist network, kicked out the brutal Al-Qaeda supporting Taliban rulers, and set up a more benign government.

    The next phase was a massive campaign in the country of Iraq to overthrow its wicked ruler Saddam Hussein, Yimach Shemo V’Zichro. Administration officials stated that this was a crucial step of the War on Terror for many reasons:

    1.) Numerous indications of Saddam’s involvement in the 9/11 attacks, the first World Trade Center bombing attack (of 1993), and the Oklahoma City bombing attack (of 1994).

    2.) Strong evidence and well known knowledge of Saddam’s brazen support of several terrorist groups (including Al-Qaeda) and their blood soaked attacks.

    3.) Saddam had never been punished for his aggressions: Cruel gassing of thousands of Kurd civilians, brutal massacres of Shi’ite minorities, sadistic torture of prisoners, unprovoked war on Iran, unprovoked invasion of Kuwait, harrowing threats of gassing Eretz Yisroel, Rachmana Litzlan, and cowardly Scud rocket attacks at Eretz Yisroel. The first US-led war on Iraq in 1991 had been to just liberate Kuwait but not to take out Saddam. Maybe now was the time to “finish the job.”

    4.) Saddam had built extensive arsenals of chemical poison weapons and was working on making nuclear weapons. Boruch HaShem, most of these arsenals were wiped out in the massive allied air bombing of the 1991 war. However, there was fear of what had not been destroyed and of what he could possibly rebuild. Therefore, agents from the United Nations were sent into Iraq to watch him. Countless times though, the agents were not allowed to check certain places, and sometimes they were totally expelled from the country. Even if they did check a place and it looked OK, they could not know if it would be OK after they would leave.

    President Bush heavily stressed this issue, declaring that the possibilities and reports of Saddam still having exotic super weapons posed grave dangers for us.

    So in March of 2003 — right after Purim — a large American led military force invaded Iraq. At first it had brilliant success, easily knocking down Iraqi forces and occupying most of the country. Soon enough, Saddam Hussein was found, put on trial, and hanged.

    However, countless uncontrollable violent terrorist attacks began happening all over the country. Many thus feared that this war was going to become — like the debacle in Vietnam four decades before — an unwinnable quagmire. Furthermore, the allied troops made countless extensive searches throughout the country, but were unable to find any significant caches of mass destructive weapons.

    The Democratic politicians had been, at best, very skeptical of President Bush’s Iraq campaign. Now, with these developments, they and the more radical liberals were severely furious at President Bush. They bluntly stated that Bush had outright lied to the nation about these totally non-existent weapons. (The real truth though, is that Saddam DID have a lot of mass weapons. Very shrewdly though, he managed to move all of them out of Iraq BEFORE the Americans came!)

    Regarding the reports of Iraq – Al-Qaeda connections and Saddam – 9/11, Oklahoma City, & First World Trade Center connections, they dismissed that as being baseless unproven right wing propaganda. “Saddam had nothing to do with 9/11!” “Saddam had nothing to do with 9/11!” “Saddam had nothing to do with 9/11!” thus became the liberal’s battle cry.

    (It is noteworthy that over six decades before, there had been almost the identical type of arguement. After Japan bombed the US Navel base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, plunging the US into World War II, Germany and Italy, who were Axis partners with Japan, also declared war on the US, bringing the US to be at war also with them. Despite this Axis alliance, numerous people repeatedly exclaimed “Hitler had nothing to do with Pearl Harbor!” and thus argued that our fight in the war should be ONLY against Japan, with no fight against Germany at all!)

  16. I agree that if the law provided capital punishment for the practice of toeiva, society would be much better off and these people would no longer promote and publicize their sin. This is in addition to the fact that this is the proper penalty for this crime.

  17. Every time this website publishes one of these comments where someone wishes the death penalty on someone for their orientation, it is promoting hate crime.

  18. (continuation of my previous comment # 27)

    Senator Lieberman had long been a hawk on Iraq. Before the first war with Iraq in 1991 (when Iraq had invaded Kuwait and the US had assembled a massive coalition to liberate Kuwait) intensive opposition was voiced in the Senate to the looming battle. So Senator Lieberman with (then) Senator Albert Gore intensely worked on their collegues to convince them to support (then) (the first) President George Herbert Walker Bush in making this war.

    This time too, Senator Lieberman strongly supported (the second) President George Walker Bush in making this second war with Iraq. The only criticism that he had on President Bush about the issue was (I actually heard in the media a clip of one of his remarks) that there were already many good solid reasons to go to war again to take out Saddam Hussein. So there was NO NEED for President Bush to (additionally) make up a lie (of the weapons business) to justify the war.

    Needless to say, Mr. Lieberman’s Democratic collegues were severely furious at him for breaking with the party line on this very major issue.

  19. The death penalty is a judicial punishment, backed and enforced by law. The person being executed is the one who committed a crime. If toeiva were criminalized, the penalty for it is what the law would prescribe. The above is the proposed penalty.

  20. (continuation of my previous comment # 31)

    When the next presidential campaign began in 2004, the person who had been the Democratic candidate for President in the previous 2000 campaign, former Vice President Albert Gore, announced that he would not make another try. (The reason he gave for his decision sounded pretty noble: he did not want the severe bitterness of the close 2000 election and the vote recount controversy to be brought up again.)

    Senator Lieberman though, decided that he would make another try, this time for President itself. (Regarding the bitterness problem, he probably reasoned that the focus of the 2000 election controversy had not been on him, but rather on the head of the ticket. Furthermore, on the other hand, the fact was that Albert and him had come extremely close to winning, so there certainly should be a chance that this time, he actually would win.)

    His presidential bid went nowhere. The Democrat establishment, which was mad at him for his “Kefira” in the holy, holy, holy “The Iraq War is Bad” doctrine, obviously gave him little support. Even his “rebbe,” with whom he had worked so hard to assist in their almost successful President/Vice President run, betrayed him. Not even having the decency to inform his former “Talmid Muvhak” of his decision before publicizing it, former Vice President Gore announced that (as he himself was not running) he was giving his endorsement to the former Governor of Vermont, Howard Brush Dean III.

    When the Democratic Primaries began, it was rapidly apparent that the two prominent candidates were Governor Dean and Senator John Kerry of Massechusetts. Senator Lieberman got very few votes. As Mr. Lieberman’s State of Conneticut is right next to Massechusetts, which in turn is right next to Vermont, he tried to use this geography to take his rejection in a humerous way. Conceeding his loses to a group of his supporters, with a big smile, he joked: “THEY VOTED FOR THE GUYS NEXT DOOR!”

    Needless to say, he was soon compelled to withdraw from the race.

    [The conclusion of the primaries was that Senator John Kerry won the Democratic nomination. For the candidate for Vice President, he chose Senator John Edwards of North Carolina. (Mr. Edwards was again in the news just recently, as his wife, who, Lo Alaynu, had severe Yenem Machla, tragically died.)]

    At the Democratic Convention, there was a part of the program where each of the people who were candidates gave a little speech. At almost all political type speeches, when the speaker is announced, and when he approaches the podium, and when he says certain key lines, and when he concludes his remarks, there is hearty applause and even cheering from the audience. This time though, when it was Senator Lieberman’s turn to speak, there was no applause and no cheering — nothing! Just total quiet!

    (In the general election, even though there were vast waves of anger at the Iraq War, there were also vast numbers of people who felt that, on the contrary, Mr. Bush being a war hawk was exactly what we needed in these dangerous times. So President Bush won re-election, doing better than he had done in the 2000 election.)

  21. yisroel feldman as usual you are dead wrong you state:
    ” Numerous indications of Saddam’s involvement in the 9/11 attacks, the first World Trade Center bombing attack (of 1993), and the Oklahoma City bombing attack (of 1994).”
    if by numerous you mean “absolutly none” then your statment would be correct otherwise it is bogus.
    you further state “Saddam had built extensive arsenals of chemical poison weapons and was working on making nuclear weapons”
    This is correct if by extensive arsenals you mean no arsenals otherwise once again it is bogus (or at the very best pure conjecture, though not a conjecture shared by even proponets of the war read “decision points”)
    You then say “The real truth though, is that Saddam DID have a lot of mass weapons. Very shrewdly though, he managed to move all of them out of Iraq BEFORE the Americans came” Id love to know where you came up with this one? And id love to understand the logic of possesing weapons with no intent of using them when the need (and i think iraq vs us army is a need if their ever was one) arises?

  22. This is a footnote to my above remarks in Comment # 27.

    1.) For more information about the Saddam Hussein – 9/11 connection, see the issues of the “Yated Neeman” that were published in the first couple of weeks right after the 9/11 attacks. In one of those issues in one of the articles about the attacks, there is related a long list of items which indicated Saddam involvement. That list has several more items in addition to the two or three that were widely reported in the general media.

    2.) For more information about the Saddam Hussein – Oklahoma City & First World Trade Center Bombings connections see http://www.jaynadavis.com/index.html.

  23. Considering that less than 1% of the population practices toeiva, we can apply the capital punishment to all of them slowly but surely.

  24. (Revision of my above footnote in Comment # 33)

    This is a footnote to my above remarks in Comment # 27.

    1.) For information about the Saddam Hussein – 9/11 connection, see the issues of the “Yated Neeman” that were published in the first couple of weeks right after the attacks. In one of those issues in one of the articles about the event, there is related a long list of items which indicated Saddam involvement. That list has several more items than the two or three that were widely reported in the general media.

    2.) For further information about the Saddam Hussein – 9/11 connection, and for information about the Saddam Hussein – Oklahoma City & First World Trade Center Bombings connections see http://www.jaynadavis.com/index.html.

  25. yisroel what in the world is your point other than to bring up half-baked conspiracy theories from loony websites and old news that has since been widely discredited, and by widely i mean complelty even by the bush administration. You cant seriously think that a yated article published ” in the first couple of weeks right after the attacks” is a meaningful source, do you? and that website…wow

  26. oh and yisroel, the best part is even this woman with her “secret sources” and “witnesses in the philipines” who can corrobarate her conspiracy theories does not claim repeat DOES NOT CLAIM (does that condescending writing style seem familiar) that there is a link between Saddam and the Oklahomo city bombing, she claims the link is to Osama.

  27. To Yankel in Comment #34:

    1.) The Footnote Comment #37 which I just posted should provide answers to your first objection.

    2.) That Saddam Hussein had chemical weapons was well known public knowledge throughout the world. Sometime around 1989-90, the magazine “US News & World Report” published an issue with the cover story about Saddam’s chemical military machine titled: “The Most Dangerous Man in the World.”

    In 1988, in front of the whole world, he well used them in a brutal poison gas attack on Kurdish civilians massacring over 5,000 people!! In 1991, right after he HAD BADLY LOST THE WAR over Kuwait (in which much of his arsenal was destroyed), before the whole world, he again used gas weapons on the Kurds.

    3.) That in the 1991 war over Kuwait itself he did not use any chemical weapons on the US lead coalition troops or in his missle attacks on Eretz Yisroel, was certainly very surprising.

    Now, already from the beginning of the Kuwait crises, President George H. W. Bush had warned that if Iraq were to use chemical weapons, the results would be “very severe,” and that the US “reserved the right to retaliate in any way that we see fit.” The Supreme Commander of the Coalition Forces, General Norman Schwarzkopf had further warned: “They should think — very carefully — before using chemical weapons; it would greatly escalate the conflict!”

    Also, one of the first objective’s of the heavy air bombardment of the war was to neutralize the horrific chemical threat, and thus, Boruch HaShem, (as I mentioned) the vast majority of the chemical systems were quickly destroyed.

    With all of this though, that Iraq did not actually go chemical in the war baffled everyone. The final analysis is that this was clearly a Neis – a miracle – from HaShem. The commanding General bluntly said this: “G-D (is the One Who) knows why they didn’t use chemical weapons!”

    4.) There is a radio talk show called “The Jeff Katz Show,” its web site is at http://radiokatz.tripod.com/. A couple of years ago, there was a feature on it about this fact, that before the second war with Iraq, Saddam transported his weapons caches out of the country.

  28. To Baruch in Comments #38 and #39:

    In my long narration of the second Iraq war in Comment #27, I related exactly what you wrote:

    “Regarding the reports of Iraq – Al-Qaeda connections and Saddam – 9/11, Oklahoma City, & First World Trade Center connections, they dismissed that as being baseless unproven right wing propaganda. ‘Saddam had nothing to do with 9/11!’ ‘Saddam had nothing to do with 9/11!’ ‘Saddam had nothing to do with 9/11!’ thus became the liberal’s battle cry.”

    When the Oklahoma City bombing occurred, I was living somewhere else. At that time, I did not even have my own radio; I first heard about it upon calling one of Askanim of B.M.G. in Lakewood. He exclaimed how the reports were that “it was an ARAB JOB!” Yet, I well remember seeing in the local newspaper the mention of “John Doe Number 1” AND “John Doe Number 2,” and thought it was weird that suddenly, there was no mention of “Numbers 1 or 2.”

    Mrs. Davis was a professional news reporter who was there, spoke to witnesses, and did extensive research. What she writes — which, incidently DOES heavily include Saddam Hussein’s connection — sounds 1,000 times more credible than (so-called) “offical” statements, which, by their own admission, changed their story, ignored crucial evidence, and were, evidently, covering up something.

    You stated: “You can’t seriously think that a Yated article published ‘in the first couple of weeks right after the attacks’ is a meaningful source. ” What do you mean with this? Are you saying a principle of doing research that all newspaper articles about a certain event that were published in the immediate period after that event have no credibility? Or, are you saying that the YATED is a poor journalism newspaper that has little credibility.

    Furthermore, it was in a positive write-up about Mrs. Davis’s book IN THE YATED that I first found out about her work. I do not think that, Chas V’Shalom, you would say that the Yated is a “loony” publication. Otherwise, you would definately have to contact the numerous people who are involved in the production of the Yated Neeman to apologize to them and ask them for Mechila.

  29. Oh Yisroel and did you know that sadddam shot JFK from the grassy knoll. How else do you explain the fact that several eyewitness saw a moustachioed man fleeing the seen carrying a sniper rifle. I have a secret source at the local mikve who told me that he personally saw the UFo that dropped of saddam on the grassy knoll.
    Also did you know that santa and Osama are one and the same? how else do you explain the fact that they have never been spotted in a room at the same time?

  30. yisroel, we are not discussing if saddam ever had weapons, of course he did. The question is if he had them during the lead-up to the US invasion. actually this isnt a question, Saddam did not now that isnt disputed except by a few loons and their conspiracy theories 9you have provided nothing but conjecture to back up this claim that virtually nobody but you holds.
    Unfortunately I wasted some time listening to the conspiracy theorist you posted, as baruch pointed out she claims Osama was behind Oklahoma not Saddam.

  31. In the 2000 campaign, when the candidate for President, Vice President Albert Gore, chose Senator Joseph Lieberman to be the candidate for (the next) Vice President, it was really a remarkable historical event. For it was the first time that a Jewish person had been a President/Vice President Candidate of a major political party. (There was one other time when there was something “close.” In the 1964 campaign, the Republican candidate for President was Senator Barry Moses Goldwater from Arizona. Mr. Goldwater’s father was Jewish, but, Nebach, had married a Goyita woman; their son, Barry Moses, was thus not Jewish, and throughout his life, he went by his mother’s religion.)

    In his acceptence speech at the Democratic Convention, Senator Lieberman expressed heartfelt Hakares HaTov – heartfelt appreciation – to America for this. In numerous other countries, Jews were beaten and murdered; by sharp contrast, here, Jews are given the chance to even become the king!

    ” . . . Tonight I am so proud to stand as your candidate for vice president of the United States. Only in America, right? Only in America. Thank you, dear friends. I am humbled by this nomination and so grateful to Al Gore for choosing me . . . ”

    ” . . . In my life, I’ve seen the goodness of this great country through many sets of eyes. I’ve seen it through the eyes of my grandmother. She was raised in Central Europe, in a village where she was often harassed just because of the way she worshipped God. And then she emigrated to America.”

    “On Saturdays, she used to walk to synagogue, and her Christian neighbors would pass her and say, ‘Good Sabbath, Mrs. Manger (ph).’ Well, it was a source of endless delight and gratitude for her that here in this country she was accepted for who she was . . . ”

    ” . . . The people I met never forgot that in America every time a barrier is broken, the doors of open opportunity go wider for every single one of us. And I know that in a very personal way tonight . . . ”

    (Text at http://www.truth-out.org/article/us-senator-joseph-lieberman-delivers-acceptance-speech-democratic-convention)

  32. (continuation of previous comment #44)

    What was equally, if not even more, remarkable, was the fact that Mr. Lieberman is an “Orthodox”/”Observant” Jew. Along with the point of opportunity for a chance at high office discussed above, there was the fact that the vast majority of the American public knows almost nothing about our Torah way of life. So now that a Jew who is of this life style was raised to the top realm of the political scene with the real possibility of becoming the assistant leader of the country, his Torah observance became a special novelty that people wanted to know “What is this thing?”

    The local news program showed a scene of a Torah service: it was a scene of a Beis Medrosh that was filled with men wearing Tallisim and Tefillin and Davening Shacharis.

    The news program showed a scene of another Torah “service” at the shul in Washington that Mr. Lieberman attends. I put the word “service” in apostrophes because it was not an actual service at all. Rather it was a scene of a group of people who were dancing around the shul’s sanctuary in a circle while singing a commonly sung Niggun from Shlomo Carlbach, Z’L!

    Mr. Lieberman was confronted with a fully understandable valid question. The point of the question was NOT to, Chas V’Shalom, imply in any way at all that a person should not adhere to the dictates of his religion. Instead, the question though was, the rules of Judaism mandate that a Jew cannot work on certain days: the weekly Shabbos and the periodic Yomim Tovim. So how can Mr. Lieberman, who states that he is a practicing Jew, expect to take a job of being the assistant director of the leading most powerful country of the world, a job that obviously requires working EVERY day and being constantly on call around the clock!

    So he repeatedly answered this challenge that Jewish law itself states that in certain emergency situations, the prohibitions of working on Shabbos and Yom Tov are suspended in order to do whatever needs to be done to keep things stable. He thus tried to assure everyone that as Vice President, he would certainly make sure that whatever needed to be done, would always be done. (Whether he answered these questions correctly Al Pi Daas Torah/Halacha or not is obviously a complex issue that is well beyond our ability to discuss.)

    Already during the campaign though, there were some difficulties. The large set of the Yomim Tovim of the fall, the Yomim Noraim, come right in the middle of the period of a presidential campaign. That year, when the Yomim Tovim came, Mr. Lieberman was refraining from making campaign appearances. This greatly irritated many campaign workers who complained that they were loosing precious crucially needed campaign time.

    As related above, the election that year was extremely close, and Albert Gore lost to George Bush by only a few votes. So it is very likely that many people figured that if Joe Lieberman would have just not missed those campaign days, he would have influenced that many more people to vote for the Gore/Lieberman ticket, and they would have had the extra votes that they had needed to win. So it is very likely that these people felt a great anger and resentment at Mr. Lieberman for causing them to loose the election. This could very well be one of the reasons why, when four years latter Mr. Lieberman tried to make his own run for president, a lot of people, including his former good friend and mentor Al Gore, did not support him.

  33. (continuation of previous comment #45)

    In the campaign, in a certain way, Senator Lieberman made a tremendous Kiddush HaShem as he repeatedly elaborated on the following principle. One of the most fundamental aspects of the foundation of freedom in this nation — and it is codified in the opening words of the First Amendment to the Constitution — is that we have “Freedom of Religion.” This means that we are all allowed to choose and follow whatever religion we want, without fear of any penalty, harassment, or discrimination whatsoever. Conversely, it means that no person can be forced, coerced, compelled, or pressured in any way whatsoever to convert to or adopt or take part in a religion or a religious observance that he does not want.

    However, this rule of “Freedom OF Religion” has been greatly distorted to become “Freedom FROM Religion.” Again, “Freedom OF Religion” — that we are free to choose what religion we want — has become “Freedom FROM Religion” — that we don’t want any religion at all! That especially in the public and governmental arenas — they are not “the place” for religion — we don’t dare say the word “G-D” at all!

    Senator Lieberman though, empathetically stated that this attitude is quite wrong.

    “DETROIT (Los Angeles Times) — Vice presidential nominee Joseph I. Lieberman made a passionate call Sunday for Americans to bring faith more prominently into public life, arguing that the nation needs to draw values and strength from religious beliefs.”

    “‘While so much of our economic life is thriving, too much of our moral life is still stagnating,’ said Lieberman, speaking during morning services at the Fellowship Chapel Church, an African American congregation here. ‘As a people, we need to reaffirm our faith and renew the dedication of our nation and ourselves to God and God’s purposes.'”

    “The speech, in which he quoted extensively from Talmudic rabbis and the Bible, was the most dramatic demonstration of how the Connecticut senator has placed his religion front and center in the campaign. Lieberman may be the first Jew on a major party ticket, but he has been anything but shy in expressing his Jewishness. He frequently mentions God in public–praising the Lord, thanking him, invoking his name.”

    ” . . . the senator spoke in almost rabbinical tones, calling for ‘a constitutional place for faith in our public life.'”

    “‘We know that the Constitution wisely separates church from state,’ he said. ‘But remember, the Constitution guarantees freedom of religion. Not freedom from religion.'”

    “Lieberman added, ‘So let us break through some of the inhibitions that have existed to talk together across the flimsy line of separation of faith: to talk together, to study together, to pray together and ultimately to sing together his holy name.'”

    ” . . . Lieberman went against conventional wisdom when Gore introduced him as his running mate this month in Nashville. In a speech filled with numerous references to God, he quoted from the Book of Chronicles, saying his selection inspired him ‘to give thanks to God and declare his name and make his acts known to the people.'”

    “‘I think maybe people feel a bond,’ he said in a recent interview. ‘Faith really plays a very important role in the lives of a great majority of Americans. It anchors their lives, as it does mine.'”

    “Lieberman said he hopes his candor ‘will enable people, all people who are moved, to feel more free to talk about their faith and about their religion. And I hope,’ he added, ‘that it will reinforce a belief that I feel as strongly about as anything else: that there must be a place for faith in America’s public life.'”

    (See text of the entire news article at http://archives.cnn.com/2000/ALLPOLITICS/stories/08/28/latimes.lieberman/index.html)

    Of course, this is remarkable. Until now, the Bible thumping publicly preaching people on the political scene were strongly religious far right wing Christians. But here, we have a Bible thumping publicly preaching Jewish offical from the Democrat Party, whose political position is, in many ways, quite on the extreme liberal side of the fence!

  34. Senator Joseph Isadore Lieberman is a government official with quite a complex political view. In some ways, he is very conservative, but in some ways, he is extremely liberal. {In political terms, such a person is called a “maverick.” [“Definition of MAVERICK . . . an independent individual who does not go along with a group or party” (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/maverick)] It could well be that this was one of the reasons why in the 2000 campaign, Albert Gore chose him as the running mate, and in the 2004 campaign, he himself thought that he might be able to make a presidential bid. Their idea may have been that as he was a maverick with such an unusual combination of political beliefs, he was someone who was “different” from the usual line of candidates. So their plan may have been that he would thus be viewed by the voters as a FRESH ALTERNATIVE to the old, worn out, cleches of political rhetoric. [Of course, the elections did not turn out that way at all.]}

    In some ways, Mr. Lieberman is very conservative. In my above comments here (#31, #33, #45, and #47), I just related in detail a few examples.

    1.) He was a strong hawk on both wars (in 1991 and 2003) with Iraq.

    2.) He himself is a religious person, strongly associated with Orthodox Judaism.

    3.) He openly called for a full return of G-D and religion into public life.

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