In the News: Senator Joe Lieberman
Joe Lieberman is a lawyer and a former United States Senator from Connecticut, as well as the state’s Attorney General. He was the Democratic Party’s nominee for Vice President in 2000.
[Editor’s Note: We are in the middle of the Jewish high holidays — between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur — and so here is our interview with Senator Joe Lieberman who was Al Gore’s candidate for Vice President in 2000. He talks about his faith and being an American, as well as shares an early memory with William F. Buckley from his first campaign. We also learn what he likes to drink and what cologne he wears.]
“My Way” Joe’s Way
Max Raskin: I heard at the recent Commentary magazine roast of Rabbi Meir Soloveitchik, you sung “Hello Solly.” On an average day what kind of music do you listen to?
Joe Lieberman: It varies. So almost every day, except the for Shabbat because I can't turn it on, I begin the day with WQXR, New York Public Radio. Classical music. And we love it. I mean, it just fills the house. My tastes otherwise are eclectic.
I'm an incorrigible Frank Sinatra fan. I love Broadway show music.
MR: Do you have a favorite Sinatra tune?
JL: Well, everybody loves “My Way.”
It became the theme song in my campaign the first time I ran for the senate. Happened sort of accidentally where I attended an Italian street festival in New Haven. The orchestra was performing on Saturday night, and I remember the band leader was a man named Vinnie Carr. Vinnie Carr was not his real name, he had a very Italian given name, but when he was growing up, they thought he should sound Irish. So anyway, he introduced me. He was not neutral in my race, and he played “My Way,” and he said, “Why don't you sing a chorus?" And I did, and got a standing ovation so my staff said, “This is it. This is our campaign song.”
William F. Buckley’s Mechitza
MR: This was the race against [Lowell] Weicker?
JL: That was against Weicker, right.
MR: That was when Buckley endorses you, right?
JL: Right.
MR: Did you know him?
JL: I did. Bill Buckley graduated from Yale probably 14 years before I did in the early fifties. I graduated in the class of ‘64. But he had a lifetime devotion to the Yale Daily News where he had been editor. And I was editor in my senior year, and he just kept in touch. We began to correspond and then he lived in Stamford, Connecticut, which was my hometown. So over the years we'd keep in touch, and then he and his wife started asking me to come and visit and have dinner and I did. And they were great evenings, really like an old salon. Great conversation, spirited – a lot of different opinions, as you expect.
JL: And then, I hate to admit this – I do at some peril – we divided into rooms of men and women. And of course, the men smoked cigars and drank brandy. And the women talked and probably drank lighter drinks.
Anyway, Buckley calls me in 1988, the year I'm running against Senator Weicker. I sometimes try vainly to impersonate that wonderful voice. He said [impersonating Buckley], "Joe, I'm thinking of endorsing you. Do you think it would help?" I said, "Well, Bill, I got to think about that." Then he said, "You know how much I like you, and respect you, but please understand that if I endorse you, it's because I despise Lowell Weicker." Weicker had been a nemesis to Ronald Reagan, who was Buckley's hero, and in some ways the realization of his work.
So I said, "You know, I think it would help me, let me think about it." Weicker had this tradition of being an idiosyncratic anti-Republican Republican. When it came to election time, he turned to the Republicans and said, "I know I'm not your favorite, but that guy that the Democrats are running against me is a communist. You want to support him?"
Buckley gave me – to use a term from our shared religious orientation – and I said this to him, he gave me a hashgacha. He said to Republicans, "This guy, Lieberman, okay, might not be your first choice, but he's kosher." Which is what the rabbis do.
I actually think it helped.
Joe Six-Pack
MR: So let me ask you a couple of silly questions.
JL: Oh, yeah, I'm great at silly questions.
MR: You were mentioning drinking brandy. What's your favorite thing to drink?
JL: It's a complicated answer. Maybe for a centrist, it’s what you’d expect. Generally speaking, in the evening, I have either a glass of wine or a bottle of beer. And my tastes are eclectic. White wine, but I like a lot of different kinds of beer.
MR: What kind of beer do you drink?
JL: My favorite is Sam Adams. I'm going through a six pack of Sam Adams Winter Lager right now that is perfect.
However, I will say in full disclosure that on the day of rest ordained by God, no less, at synagogue, I have a shot or two, after services, of single malt scotch or bourbon. That's it.
MR: What kind of scotch?
JL: Glenfiddich is good. I like some of those…
MR: Did you drink Slivovitz?
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