More headlines: Joseph Lieberman on Principles & Values
(Following are older quotations. Click here for main quotations.)
The promise of America promises opportunity for all
The great question this year, is what will we dream for our country and how will we make it come true? We who gather here tonight believe that it’s not just the size of our national feast that is important but the number of people we can fit around the
table. There must be room for everybody. As every faith teaches us and as presidents from Lincoln to Roosevelt to Reagan to Clinton have reminded us we must as Americans, try to see our nation not just through our own eyes but through the eyes of others.
Source: Speech to the Democrat Convention
Aug 16, 2000
Continue to criticize Hollywood, but no Silver Sewer awards
Joseph Lieberman said he would not back down from his criticism of Hollywood. However, Lieberman said that if he and Gore are elected, he would not continue issuing “Silver Sewer” awards to people and companies that he and conservative William Bennett
deem “cultural polluters.” “There are certain things that a vice president doesn’t do that a senator can do,” Lieberman told NBC’s “Meet the Press.” He said he would continue pushing for less violence and sex in public entertainment.
Source: AP article in NY Times
Aug 13, 2000
Nominated for V.P. because of faith, not despite faith
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of Lieberman’s rise, however, is that he was chosen not despite his faith, but because of it. It was Lieberman’s no-apologies assertion of moral values that attracted Gore to him. Lieberman displayed those
values Tuesday in a speech that cited God almost a dozen times in language more devout than any similarly prominent Christian political figure-and certainly any Democrat--had used in recent memory.
Source: Geraldine Baum, LA Times
Aug 9, 2000
Rebuked Clinton for Monica; but against impeachment
Lieberman was dismayed by Clinton’s lying about the Lewinsky affair. He said, “Such behavior is wrong and unacceptable and should be followed by some measure of public rebuke and accountablity.” But he was persuaded not to call for censure, and he
stopped well short of backing impeachment. The speech clearly changed the tenor of the public dialogue. Clinton accepted this rebuke, and it may have helped him, by showing other Democrats how to criticize his conduct while still not calling for removal.
Source: Almanac of American Politics 2000 (Barone & Ujifusa)
Jan 1, 2000
Clinton’s behavior was sordid, but not impeachabale
Lieberman said he was deeply troubled by the evidence presented by the House Managers, and as a result “came closer to voting to convict the President than I thought I would.” “But after much reflection and review of the extensive evidence before us,
of the meaning of the term ‘high Crimes and Misdemeanors,’ and, most importantly, of the best interests of the nation, I have concluded that the facts do not meet the high standard the Founders established for conviction and removal,” Lieberman said.
“No matter how deeply disappointed I am that our President, who has worked so successfully to lift up the lives of so many people, so lowered himself and his office, I conclude that his wrongdoing in this sordid saga does not justify making him the
first President to be ousted from office in our history.”
“Impeachment is not an instrument of protest, or of prosecution, but one of protection, of our country, its people, and our democratic ideals,” Lieberman said.
Source: Press Release, “Opposing Articles of Impeachment”
Feb 11, 1999