Presidential Also-Rans Running Mates 2000

Presidential Also-Rans Running Mates 2000 Part I: Gore-Lieberman Leslie H. Southwick

This article is a pocket part of sorts to Judge Southwick’s Presidential Also-Rans Running Mates, 1788 through 1996 (McFarland 2d ed. 1998), a useful and readable, even browseable, book that should not be permitted to go out of date. This pocket part covers Democratic Party candidates Al Gore and Joe Lieberman. A second part, which will appear in our Spring 2004 issue, covers Green Party candidates Ralph Nader and Winona LaDuke. – The Editors

Nominations President – Winona LaDuke. This was the same ticket that had been nominated in 1996. Green Party Convention (2nd): June 24-25, Republican National Convention (37th): 2000, at Renaissance Hotel in Denver, July 31-August 3, 2000, at the First Union Cen- Colorado. There were about 300 delegates ter, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. President – representing 39 states. President – Ralph George W. Bush, nominated on the Õrst ballot Nader, nominated on the Õrst ballot with 295 after a four-day “rolling roll call” of states, with votes. Ten votes were cast for Stephen Gaskin, 2,058 votes. Alan Keyes received 6 votes, John described as an “aging hippie” who was some- McCain 1, and there was 1 abstention. Major what prominent in the 1960s counterculture of GOP candidates during the primaries were San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury district. Lamar Alexander (Tenn.), Gary Bauer (Va.), Gaskin wanted universal health care, Pat Buchanan (D.C.), Elizabeth Dole (N.C.), campaign Õnance reform, and to decriminal- Steve Forbes (N.J.), Alan Keyes (Md.), Orrin ize marijuana. Ten votes also were received by Hatch (Utah), John McCain (Ariz.), Dan Jello Biafra. Biafra’s actual name was Eric Quayle (Ind.), and Bob Smith (N.H.). Vice Boucher. He was the lead performer for a President – Dick Cheney, nominated on the punk rock group called Dead Kennedys. Vice Õrst ballot by acclamation. The four-day

Leslie Southwick is a Presiding Judge on the Mississippi Court of Appeals. Copyright 2004 Leslie H. Southwick.

141 Leslie H. Southwick rolling vote for President had not yet been Los Angeles, California. President – Al Gore, completed on Wednesday, August 2, when nominated on the Õrst ballot with 4,328 votes; Cheney was nominated. That made the vice there were 9 abstentions. Bill Bradley (N.J.) presidential nomination Õnal before the was the only serious challenger during the presidential nomination was concluded. primaries. Vice President – Joe Lieberman, Reform Party National Convention (2nd): nominated by unanimous consent on the Õrst August 10-13, 2000, at the Long Beach, ballot. California, Convention Center. The party was undergoing a public and bitter factional Õght. General Election, One group, consisting of many of those who November 7, 2000 had supported Ross Perot in 1992 and 1996, felt that Patrick Buchanan was disqualiÕed Popular Vote because he initially ran as a Republican, then encouraged people who did not support the Al Gore-Joe Lieberman 50,996,064 Reform Party to vote for him in the pre- George W. Bush-Dick Cheney 50,456,167 convention mail balloting. Buchanan received Ralph Nader-Winona LaDuke 2,864,810 49,529 (64.4%) of the mail votes cast, and John Pat Buchanan-Ezola Foster 448,750 Hagelin claimed 28,539 votes (36.6%). A two- Others 615,138 thirds vote of the convention delegates could reject the mail ballot outcome. In the ensuing Electoral Vote parliamentary gridlock, those who would not Bush-Cheney 271 accept Buchanan left the convention. The Gore-Lieberman 2661 remaining delegates formally nominated Patrick Buchanan for president. Buchanan Winners chose Ezola Foster (Cal.) as his running mate. George W. Bush, 43rd President The bolters met nearby at the Long Beach Dick Cheney, 46th Vice President Performing Arts Center. This group nomi- nated John S. Hagelin (Iowa), who then chose Losers (at least 2% of vote) Nat Goldhaber (Cal.) for vice president. Al Gore, Joe Lieberman, Ralph Nader, Hagelin also ran as the nominee of the Natural Winona LaDuke Law Party. Hagelin’s group Õled a complaint with the Federal Election Commission, 2000 Presidential Nominee – charging that Pat Buchanan “hijacked” the Democratic Party Convention by blatant violation of procedural rules. The FEC declared in September that Al Gore Buchanan would receive the $12.6 million in federal campaign money to which the Reform Full Name: Albert Arnold Gore, Jr. Party was entitled because of the substantial State Represented: Tennessee. turnout for Ross Perot in 1996. Neither Birth: March 31, 1948, in Washington, D.C. Reform Party ticket drew signiÕcant general Age on Inauguration Day ( January 20, election support. 2001): 52 years, 9 1/2 months. Democratic National Convention (43rd): Education: Harvard University (1969 B.A. August 14-17, 2000, at the Staples Center, in government); attended Vanderbilt University

1 One D.C. elector chosen for Gore submitted a blank ballot.

142 7 Green Bag 2d 141 Presidential Also-Rans Running Mates 2000

Graduate School of Religion (1971-72); supply company. The parents divorced when attended Vanderbilt Law School (1974-76). Tipper was 14 months old; she was raised by Religion: Baptist. her mother and grandmother in Washington, Ancestry: Scots-Irish in some accounts, D.C. Tipper Gore is a social activist on mental Anglo-Irish in others. Distantly related to health and children’s issues, also a writer and blind U.S. Senator Thomas Gore of Okla- photographer. The Gores married on May 19, homa, who was Õrst elected in 1907, and that 1970. Senator Gore’s grandson, writer Gore Vidal. Children: Karenna (August 6, 1973- ) Occupation: Reporter (1971-76); in public married Dr. Andrew SchiÖ in 1997; she is a oÓce continuously (1977-2001). lawyer. Kristin ( June 5, 1977- ) is a writer in Public OÓces: United States House of Los Angeles. Sarah ( January 7, 1979- ). Albert Representatives (1977-1985); United States III (October 19, 1982- ). Senator (1985-1992); candidate for Democratic Historic Sites: Gore family farm lies near presidential nomination (1988); Vice President Carthage, Tennessee, and is still owned by (1993-2001); Democratic presidential nominee family and not open to public. Bust of Gore in (2000). Capitol along with those of other Vice Home: Carthage, Tennessee, and Washing- Presidents. ton, D.C. Movies: War Ro om (1994), a documentary Personal Characteristics: A ruggedly hand- about the 1992 Clinton campaign that also some, athletic man, with once-thick brown includes scenes involving Al Gore. hair thinning in middle age. He can be stiÖ and boring in public speaking, and awkwardly
forced in his eÖorts to overcome that style. He is said to be engaging and witty in private. In 1970, Democratic United States Senator Al Father: Albert Arnold Gore, Sr. (December Gore, Sr. of Tennessee narrowly lost re- 26, 1907-December 5, 1998); United States election to conservative Republican congress- Representative, 1939-1953; United States man and candy fortune heir Bill Brock. Also Senator, 1953-1971. in 1970, Republican Congressman George Mother: Pauline LaFon (1912- ), daughter Bush tried to move up to the Senate, but lost of Walter and Maude LaFon. Walter was a narrowly to Democrat Lloyd Bentsen. The state highway department worker on occasion, senior Gore concluded a long political career and operated a general store in northwest with his 1970 defeat for the Senate. The senior Tennessee. Pauline Õrst married when she was Bush was just commencing his own lengthy 17, and divorced after less than a year. Married public service. The namesake son of each of Gore on May 15, 1937. She graduated from law these defeated 1970 Senate candidates would school but was unable to get a meaningful meet in electoral combat thirty years later for legal position. the highest oÓce in the country. Al Gore, Jr., Siblings: Nancy LaFon Gore ( January 23, and George W. Bush would, like their fathers 1938-July 11, 1984). Married attorney Frank in 1970, both experience in 2000 the prospect Hunger of Greenville, Mississippi. They had of apparent defeat. Unlike their fathers, each no children. 2000 candidate would be convinced that he Wife: Mary Elizabeth “Tipper” Aitcheson had won. Only one took up residence at 1600 (August 19, 1948- ). Her parents were Jack and Pennsylvania Avenue. It is the life story of the Margaret Carlson Aitcheson, owners of an other that will be examined here. Alexandria, Virginia plumbing and heating Al Gore, Jr., was born and raised in

Green Bag • Winter 2004 143 Leslie H. Southwick

Washington, D.C. Considering the nature of marrying a wealthy heiress, Peretz would politics, and especially Southern politics, become the publisher of the New Republic. He Washington roots are less than optimal. Thus would assiduously support his former student Gore’s ties to the Tennessee farm of his in its pages. parents were much more emphasized in At Harvard Gore also encountered a tutor political campaigns than his childhood on named Erich Segal, a classics instructor whose Embassy Row in the Fairfax Hotel, which in writings about campus life would become the the 1950’s advertised itself as “Washing ton’s movie Love Story. Gore as vice president would Family Hotel.” It is now the Westin Embassy stir controversy when he claimed that he and Row. Tipper were the models for the lead characters, The prestigious school for the sons of portrayed in the movie by Ryan O’Neal and Ali Wa shing ton’s elite was St. Albans, adjacent to McGraw. Segal said that Gore and Jones were the then-uncompleted National Cathedral in blended to form the male character, while the the northwest part of the District. The school author did not know Tipper well enough to had been started in the late 1800’s for the have borrowed from her background and choirboys at the cathedral, but well before personality. Gore’s time it had modeled itself after With graduation looming and the resulting traditional English boarding schools. Gore loss of his student deferment from the military began there in the fourth grade and remained draft, the spring of 1969 was a time of crisis. until he graduated from high school. His I.Q. Gore’s opposition to the war caused his would eventually be tested at the extraordi- mother to oÖer to help him go to Canada. nary level of 133 or 134, but at St. Albans he Gore later said that he never considered it. did not apply himself suÓciently to be a top After months of deliberation, Gore decided to student. He graduated at the exact middle of enlist in the Army. Graduation came in June. his 51 boy class in 1965. Army enlistment came two months later, and Harvard was the only school to which he in late September, Gore received orders to applied. When Gore arrived on campus in the depart for Vietnam on December 26. He fall of 1965, Harvard was just beginning to became a military journalist. develop its image as an antiwar, drug-using, Other life choices were made at this time. rather radical campus. Gore remained largely During his senior year at St. Albans, Gore but not completely in the more sedate met “Tipper” Aitcheson at a party after the tradition, running for and winning the school’s prom. She was someone else’s date presidency of the Freshman Council. Gore’s that night, but by the next day Gore had her friend and future actor Tommy Lee Jones phone number, a promise of a date, and the called Gore “high school” for his buttoned- beginning of a relationship that would last. In down, serious approach to the mock Gore’s Õnal spring at Harvard, he proposed. responsibilities of student government. After Tipper accepted. They would not be married his freshman year at Harvard, Gore until another year had passed. abandoned campus politics, and he remained Gore’s service in Vietnam was in an engineer on the sidelines of protests on campus against brigade’s public information oÓce based about the Vietnam War. While his campus peers 30 miles south of Saigon. He does not recount scorned those in power, Gore seemed any especially dangerous experiences. Most of conscious that one day he might join that what he has said about the time there focused group. He found a mentor in young, liberal, on the boredom. Nothing suggests that either even dissident professor Marty Peretz. After father or son sought special treatment for him.

144 7 Green Bag 2d 141 Presidential Also-Rans Running Mates 2000

Nevertheless, after only three months in every Õve years. The August 5 primary would Vietnam, Gore had an opportunity to seek an decide the election because the GOP oÖered early departure because the engineer brigade no candidate. The speaker of the state house was being gradually recalled to the United of representatives, Stanley Rogers, was Gore’s States. Gore applied to graduate school at principal opponent. In the home state of Vanderbilt University and was accepted for country music, another of his opponents was enrollment in either June or August. The endorsed by Johnny Cash. Even without the Army allowed him to leave Vietnam after only “Man in Black” in his corner, Gore eked out a Õve months, about half the normal tour. He 3,500-vote victory in an election in which had arrived in Vietnam on January 8, and left 115,000 votes were cast. He had only 32 on May 22, 1971. But he had served, the only percent of the vote to Rogers’ 29 percent, but member of a major party presidential ticket to there were no runoÖs. By such narrow serve in Vietnam. margins are political careers, even careers that Upon Gore’s return, he was discharged have the potential to reach the Presidency, from the Army and became a reporter for the begun or stillborn. Making the political year Nashville Tennessean, edited by his friend John even more satisfying, in November, Democrat Seigenthaler – whose namesake son would James Sasser defeated Senator Brock for re- later be a reporter and anchor for the NBC election. It was Brock who had beaten Al network. Gore also enrolled at the Vanderbilt Gore, Sr. in 1970. Divinity School, to explore the moral ques- A self-deÕned “raging moderate,” Gore had tions with which he was left after his service in a voting record that was fairly liberal for a Vietnam. As some noted later, it was to Gore’s Southerner, but on key high proÕle issues credit that he enrolled in divinity school – such as abortion and gun control, he cast which might have excused him from military conservative votes. He would abandon those service – only after he had been in Vietnam. positions as he moved onto a national stage. After several years of part-time work, Gore When Gore sought to become a leader on an left without a degree. issue, it was often a fairly technical and Something else that Gore sampled was narrow question, such as concerns of satellite- Vanderbilt Law School, beginning in the fall dish owners and possible misdeeds in the of 1974. He lasted two years and did not contact lens industry. Dan Glickman, a graduate. By the spring of 1976, something else House colleague and later President Clinton’s was on his mind. A potentially winnable seat Secretary of Agriculture, said that Gore “had in Congress opened when the incumbent a good knack for Õnding issues that were not announced his retirement. Gore’s entry into terribly controversial.” He would take on the political world at his Õrst opportunity meatier matters, though. seemed inevitable to many friends and more Congressman Gore studied with an inten- distant observers. He was not a natural. As a sity rarely seen among members of Congress, Õrst-time candidate, Gore appeared wooden, taking tutorials from experts and surprising formal, unsure of himself, and constantly in them with his dedication to study. Arms need of aÓrmation of his progress. control was an early focus. In the early years With recollections of his father’s political of the Ronald Reagan presidency, Gore tried struggles still fresh, Gore ran as a conserva- to create a middle ground between the tive. He promised a defense “second to none,” proposals of his party for a nuclear weapons and proposed that federal agencies be freeze and the Administration’s policy of a abolished unless they could justify themselves build-up in strategic forces and development

Green Bag • Winter 2004 145 Leslie H. Southwick of a new generation of missiles. In March children of anyone outside the immediate fam- 1982, after 14 months of preparation, Gore ily. Or to put it another way, he is part of our introduced a proposal to freeze all new immediate family.” Hunger would later serve as weapons development both in the United a trusted adviser in the 2000 campaign, always States and in the Soviet Union, and then supportive but also candid with hard truths.2 gradually replace multiple-warhead missiles Nancy Hunger’s illness caused her brother with more geographically dispersed single- to become interested in stronger legislation warhead ones. The argument was that these against tobacco companies. Gore sought to scattered weapons would be harder to Õnd compromise with tobacco interests on what and destroy, precluding a successful Õrst became the Comprehensive Smoking Preven- strike by either country. The plan was tion Education Act of 1984. The Õnal bill overtaken by the end of the Cold War, but it mandated new warnings about health hazards established Gore as a man who could master of smoking, required tobacco companies to a tough, technical subject, and be taken reveal the additives in cigarettes, and set the seriously in his proposals. stage for still stronger measures later. Gore was Gore saw his opportunity to move up to shabbily treated by some of the tobacco the Senate in 1984. Three-term Republican lobbyists with whom he worked, and became Senator Howard Baker let it be known in an increasingly strident opponent of tobacco in January 1983 that he would not run again. the coming years. He has been accused of Gore sought to scare oÖ possible opponents rewriting his record of opposition to tobacco. with aggressive early fund-raising. Incumbent Perhaps, but Gore not long after his sister’s Republican Governor Lamar Alexander, who death was a tobacco industry foe. would in 2002 be elected to this same Senate The 1984 Senate campaign proved to be an seat after a stint in a President’s Cabinet and easy one, despite Ronald Reagan’s landslide re- two unsuccessful presidential races, declined election. Denied Governor Alexander, the national Republican entreaties that he run. Republicans turned to underfunded state sen- More signiÕcant than political opportunity ator Victor Ashe. Even so, the cautious Gore was the serious illness of his only sibling, distanced himself from Democratic presiden- Nancy Gore Hunger. She and her husband tial nominee Walter Mondale, who was Frank lived in Greenville, Mississippi. A life- headed for a landslide defeat in Tennessee. In time of smoking cigarettes likely caused her a debate, Ashe offered Gore five dollars to give lung cancer, a diagnosis made in 1982. Her to charity if he would simply say the name of decline was steady and painful. She had been his party’s presidential nominee. Gore close to her brother and was valiant in support- declined. Ashe used as his campaign mascot a ing him in 1984. She got out of her sickbed, put bulldog in order to demonstrate his tenacity. It on a wig to hide that her hair had fallen out was not enough, as Gore won with 61 percent from chemotherapy, and attended Gore’s of the vote. campaign opening on May 30, 1984. Six weeks Al Gore, Jr. was seen as a moderate later she died. Frank Hunger remained close to alternative to many of the other Democrats Gore and his family. According to the Gores, considering the 1988 race to succeed President he had “formed the closest relationship to our Reagan. Gore accentuated the diÖerences,

2Al Tipper Gore, Joined at the Heart: The Transformation of the American Family (New York: Henry Holt, 2002), 74. Joe Hadassah Lieberman, An Amazing Adventure (New York: Simon Schuster, 2003), 178.

146 7 Green Bag 2d 141 Presidential Also-Rans Running Mates 2000 sounding more like a defense hardliner than the more explicit albums was belatedly any other Democrat. Another issue that gave accepted. Al Gore had created distrust and him a diÖerent identity from his party peers worse in core Democratic campaign funding came through Tipper Gore. To carve out sources. The music and movie industries some role for herself beyond the home, she made their fortunes in understanding and started a Congressional Wives Task Force. catering to the desires of modern American The group provided a forum for wives who society. They did not want to block trends; wanted to take positions on issues of they wanted to exploit them. particular concern to them, usually matters Senator Gore announced for President on not central to the debates of their husbands. April 10, 1987. He had been in the Senate Among the questions examined was violence barely two years. His announcement speech on television. In time, that focus shifted for addressed arms control, AIDS, literacy, and Mrs. Gore to abusive and sex-focused lyrics men on Mars by 2000. He would have to in popular music. She would write a book on tighten his message in order for any sense of these concerns entitled Raising PG Kids in an national priority to become clear. As the X-Rated Society (1987). campaign progressed and Gore distinguished Tipper Gore and Susan Baker, the wife of himself from what at Õrst were seven other Republican Treasury Secretary James Baker, major candidates, he sounded increasingly formed the Parents Music Resource Center in conservative on defense and domestic policy. 1985. The group sought voluntary restraint by An issue that Gore had wanted to avoid the music industry. A compromise of sorts arose in November. Only days after being was oÖered by 19 record companies that nominated by President Reagan on October represented eighty percent of sales, that a label 29, 1987 to the Supreme Court, Court of be attached to problematic products that Appeals Judge Douglas Ginsburg admitted to would state “Parental Guidance – Explicit using marijuana while a law professor at Har- Lyrics.” The Gore-Baker organization rejected vard. He withdrew his name. Prior drug use the oÖer. became an issue to be addressed by all major The Senate Commerce Committee held a politicians. Gore’s initial explanation was that Õve-hour hearing in September 1985, in which he had not used drugs as an adult, and earlier some extreme examples of the music and usage was not a proper issue. That did not videos that worried the group were played to a suÓce, and eventually he said that in the 1960’s, packed room. Senator Gore gave an opening his life reÔected the times. Implicitly, he had statement, criticizing absent industry execu- acknowledged using drugs. Other candidates tives who had been invited to the hearing. He forthrightly admitted to drug use, and the said they should take a hard look at issue died. themselves in order to decide if “this is the way As has occurred in other nomination they want to earn a living.” Performers who battles, the tone was not always a congenial were invited responded bitterly to the one. Most memorably, Gore questioned committee and challenged its motives and Massachusetts Governor Mike Dukakis those of Tipper Gore. about a program that permitted weekend Censorship was the perceived inevitable furloughs to state prisoners even if they were result if the concerns raised by both Gores serving life sentences. Gore said that two were to be successfully addressed. The entire convicted killers had killed again during their issue became too controversial. Within a short furloughs and challenged Dukakis on period the former oÖer of warning labels on whether he would favor such a program at

Green Bag • Winter 2004 147 Leslie H. Southwick

Campaign Poster

148 7 Green Bag 2d 141 Presidential Also-Rans Running Mates 2000 the federal level. This was the Willie Horton the status quo. Losing a presidential race, story, one to be pursued in much greater detail almost losing his son, and turning 40 years old when George Bush and Mike Dukakis gained all gave him an “urgency about those things their parties’ nominations. that I value the most.”3 Gore sought to break out of the crowded Gore was attracted to the idea of writing a Democratic Õeld on “Super Tuesday,” March 8, book about the environmental crisis as he saw a primary election day with a monstrously large it. In August 1990, the publisher Houghton- prize of delegates from mostly Southern states. MiÒin accepted his proposal. Gore would He in fact was one of the big winners, winning later state that he had put “his entire heart and seven states. Gore, Sr. told his son’s press soul into” the enterprise. That appears true. secretary “That boy is going to be president.” In Before his writing began in earnest, he won election campaigns, though, perception is re-election in 1990, defeating Republican power. The story that the media played over William Hawkins of Knoxville with 70 the next few days was not Gore’s winning percent of the vote. A year and a half later, where he should have won, but that Jesse Gore’s book was published, entitled Earth in Jackson had carried Õve southern states. What the Balance. That Gore actually wrote the book in fact was a big Gore victory was lost in the – a rare feat among modern celebrities of any Jackson news. The campaign limped on for stripe – is accepted. More disputed is whether awhile, until only Dukakis, Jackson, and Gore the book was a reasoned discussion or instead were left. After getting only ten percent of the was an unreasoned polemic. Senator Gore is vote in the New York primary on April 19, Gore an intelligent, thoughtful man, and the book withdrew. exhibits that. He can be passionate, and the After President Bush was inaugurated in book is full of displays of Gore’s personal January 1989, Senator Gore spent considerable passion about the environment. It is eclectic time on issues involving the environment. At in its sources and ideas, calling forth the times he seemed obsessed, even taking flip words of Aristotle, Descartes, and Sir Francis charts to a dinner party to explain environmen- Bacon, discussing chaos theory, relativity, tal issues. He explained that he became psychology, and religion. The western world’s passionate about the environment after a use of the environment is likened to the horrifying experience leaving the Baltimore actions of a dysfunctional family. Gore’s Orioles baseball stadium in April 1989. As the answer was an ecological Global Marshall Gore family walked towards their parking Plan. It would create new tax incentives for place, six-year-old Albert got separated. The ecologically sound choices, fund research into Senator saw his son “get hit by a car, fly thirty new technologies, create training centers feet through the air and scrape along the around the world so that a “core of environ- pavement another twenty feet until he came to mentally educated planners” would exist, and rest in a gutter.” Gore ran to his son, but the boy otherwise organize, regulate, and enforce the was motionless. Two off-duty nurses fortu- new commitment to the environment.4 nately came by, and through a long period of The Democratic National Committee was surgery and rehabilitation the boy not only worried that Gore would be accused of survived but nearly fully recovered. Gore said environmental extremism due to the book. A that this experience made him impatient with memorandum was prepared detailing possible

3Al Gore, Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit (Boston: Houghton-MiÒin, 1992), 13-14. 4 Id at 320.

Green Bag • Winter 2004 149 Leslie H. Southwick attacks on it.5 However, the book never became helped change the public attitude about a signiÕcant issue in the 1992 campaign. NAFTA and somewhat marginalized Perot. Bill Clinton, by that time the presumptive The Clinton-Gore team had another Democratic presidential nominee, invited plurality victory in 1996. Gore was the heir- several prospective running mates to meet with presumptive to the 2000 nomination. Among him individually. His meeting with Gore, the controversies he faced was that he raised which started at 11:00 p.m. and went to 1:40 money for the 1996 campaign by making a.m., appeared at times to be that of two old telephone calls from the White House. That college friends reuniting after a long absence. arguably violated restrictions on seeking Clinton and Gore were comfortable with each political contributions while on governmental other, though that would not always be the property. More troubling was an event at a case. Clinton oÖered; Gore accepted. The Buddhist Temple in Los Angeles in April 1996. absence of geographical or even of generational About $140,000 was raised there for the balance was unusual but not unique. In 1948, Clinton-Gore campaign, which violated for example, Missourian Harry Truman federal laws on raising money at tax-exempt tapped Alben Barkley from the contiguous institutions. Some of the Buddhist monks and border state of Kentucky and went on to nuns were conduits for individual $5,000 surprising victory over a properly balanced donations, given them by a Chinese fundraiser Republican ticket. In 1992, these two named John Huang. No signiÕcant news candidates from contiguous southern states, coverage of the event occurred until 1997, when aided by an independent Ross Perot candidacy Washing ton Post writer Bob Woodward broke that drained signiÕcant votes from both major the story. The controversy led eventually to the parties, won a Õve percent plurality over most damaging press conference in which Gore President Bush and Vice President Quayle. ever participated. Seven times he used a phrase Vice President Gore had what is most that a lawyer had used in front of him in important in the White House, access to the preparing for the conference, that there was “no President. A pre-inauguration written agree- controlling legal authority” that what had ment between the two men provided that Gore occurred violated the law. would have areas of near-autonomy, such as the On June 15, 1999, from the steps of the environment, scientiÕc or technical matters, courthouse in Carthage, Tennessee, Gore space exploration, and, in time, “reinventing” announced for the 2000 Democratic presi- government. dential nomination. He and George W. Bush Highlights of his service included the were seen as the likely nominees of their televised debate in the fall of 1993 with Ross respective parties. The public opinion polls at Perot concerning the North American Free that early stage indicated that Bush was Trade Agreement, or NAFTA. The often starting ahead. Clinton scandals made the wooden and overly serious Vice President was advantage of Gore’s closeness to Clinton also thought to be no match for the always folksy one of his biggest disadvantages. On Perot. Perot was unprepared to debate December 19, 1998, in the depths of a scandal NAFTA in any detail, and Gore made him regarding Clinton’s sexual relations with an look both uninformed and loony. The debate intern, Gore had told a crowd on the White occurred on the Larry King Live show on CNN, House lawn that Clinton would emerge as and had a large audience. Gore’s performance “one of our greatest Presidents.” Six months

5 John Leo, “Al Gore’s global vision,” U.S. News Worl d Re p ort (August 24, 1992), at 20.

150 7 Green Bag 2d 141 Presidential Also-Rans Running Mates 2000 later when Gore announced his presidential the same poll showed Bush leading only by run, he said that he found Clinton’s conduct 42 to 38 percent. An eÖective Democratic to have been “inexcusable.” He promised to convention might return the race to a narrow take his own “values of faith and family to the margin. Actor Tommy Lee Jones, Gore’s White House.” college friend, gave the nomination speech. Despite these hurdles, Gore did not draw a Gore’s acceptance was carefully balanced. He large Õeld of challengers. Only former New mentioned his President just once, then said, Jersey Senator Bill Bradley contested for the “Now we turn the page, and write a new nomination. In contrast, in 1988 Vice- chapter.” In the ensuing campaign, Clinton President George Bush, whose President was was not called upon by his Vice President for also suÖering the eÖects of a controversy in the assistance. Apparently it was decided that the form of the Iran-Contra aÖair, had six safer course was to leave Clinton oÖ the stage signiÕcant Republican challengers. Bradley on which Gore was trying to star. raised money and showed an appealing per- One of the most memorable, and remarked sonal style. His campaign featured a on, events was Gore’s lengthy embrace and calculated absence of polish and seeming lack kiss of his wife Tipper on the stage on the Õnal of attention to normal political considerations. night. The conservative National Review It was the Democratic version of the tempo- labeled its cover story that depicted the scene, rarily successful John McCain Straight Talk “Gross-Out,” because of the view that it was a Express on the Republican side. Gore did not manufactured display of aÖection meant to seem so inevitable. loosen up Gore’s image. A large group of Gore got advice on how to put more voters, though, must have been favorably excitement and focus into his standard stump impressed by the entirety of the Democratic speech. He began wearing what were seen as convention extravaganza. In a poll taken two more attractive earth-tone clothes. In weeks after the convention, the Gore ticket October 1999 Gore moved his campaign had gained a ten percent lead. headquarters out of Washington to Nash- This was a fall campaign in which neither ville, Tennessee, as a sign of a new beginning. candidate could grab victory securely. Three Gore added more frequent Õghting words to nationally televised debates made Gore his vocabulary, tried to become more ani- appear forced in his manner, goofy, even mated, and did his best to reinvent himself mean-spirited at times, and anything but into what the public seemed to want in its natural. In the last debate Gore strode candidates. The Gore campaign righted itself. purposefully across the stage to where Bush Bradley lost the Iowa caucuses and then the was answering a question, which gave to many New Hampshire primary. He in fact won no the sense that Gore was trying to intimidate primary, and his Õnancial resources dried up. him. Bush handled the scene well. He nodded Bradley withdrew in March 2000. towards Gore and gave him a bemused slight With the Democratic race over, Gore grin. Many in the audience laughed. Bush had started his preparations early for the fall delivered the nonverbal equivalent of Ronald campaign. Even so, by the time of the August Reagan’s masterful 1980 debate line to Jimmy Democratic convention, Gore was trailing Carter, “there you go again.” badly in the polls. In one poll conducted just With a week to go before the election, it after the GOP convention, George W. Bush appeared that Bush had a lead. Then on the led with 49 percent to Gore’s 32 percent. Just Thursday before the election, a story broke a week before the GOP convention, though, that in 1976, a thirty-year-old George W. Bush

Green Bag • Winter 2004 151 Leslie H. Southwick had been arrested and pled guilty to driving essentially Õnal. under the inÔuence while in Maine. The Gore conceded the next day. Campaigning information came from a former Democratic for fellow Democrats in 2002, he would ask candidate for Maine governor and a 2000 Gore “do you remember where you were when they delegate. The story dominated the news during stopped counting the vote in 2000; do you the last weekend of the campaign. Perhaps that remember how you felt?”6 It is most human last-minute proof of long-ago misconduct that Gore, his ambitions cruelly crushed, shifted a few Bush voters who had not been would place the moment that the votes were quite convinced. Something caused comfort- no longer being counted into the same able Bush margins in many states to evaporate. pantheon with a presidential assassination, or A few signiÕcant states that were thought a terrorist attack on this country. It would not safely in Bush’s column went for Gore. The key be surprising if most voters do not. proved to be Florida. On election night Gore Both Al and Tipper Gore have been encour- was declared by some television networks to aged to run for office since 2000. She rejected have won there even though polls were still the possibility of running in 2002 for the open. The Bush team argued that this kept United States Senate seat held by Fred thousands of their voters home. Later that Thompson, who had announced his retire- night the state was declared for Bush, then for ment. On December 15, 2002, Gore said that no one. he would not challenge President Bush in the Beginning immediately after the November 2004 election. A year later he endorsed former 7 election, both camps sent teams of lawyers to Vermont Governor Howard Dean’s candidacy. Florida. The number of lawsuits grew. Issues Gore said that even though there were other of confusing butterÔy ballots, punch-card issues, it was Dean’s being “the only major can- ballots with hanging chads, and contested didate who was right” about the war in Iraq absentee and overseas ballots became common that was the principal consideration.7 Ironi- conversation for citizens across the country. cally, four days later Saddam Hussein was cap- Recounts and the possibility of new elections tured in his “spider hole” in Iraq, an American in selected precincts were among the remedies success that at least temporarily altered the being pursued. The Florida Supreme Court politics of zealous criticisms of the war. ordered that a manual recount of selected For now, Al Gore is retired from elective precincts be undertaken, a ruling favorable to politics. He teaches, is associated with an asset Gore. The uncertainty ended with a ruling by management Õrm, and campaigns actively for the United States Supreme Court released at other Democrats. 10:00 p.m., December 12, 2000. By a 7-2 vote, the Court held that the varying methods used Analysis of QualiÕcations among Florida counties to determine what Children of famous people have extra was a proper vote violated the equal protection motivations and extra challenges. Moving rights of voters. By a 5-4 vote, the Court found quickly out of his senatorial father’s shadow that the results that the state had already was one of Al Gore, Jr.’s motivations. The certiÕed, declaring Bush as the winner, were younger Gore was a congressman by the age of

6 Noemie Emery, “Al Gore’s Scarred Pysche,” Weekly Standard (December 16, 2002). 7 “Tipper Gore will not seek Senate,” Washington Times (March 18, 2002), at A9. Dan Balz, “Gore Stuns Many by Choosing Not to Run in ’04,”’ Wa sh i ng t o n Pos t (December 16, 2002), at A1. Jodi Wilgoren, “Iowa Harlem Rallies Set Scene for Gore’s Endorsement,” New York Times (December 10, 2003), at A20.

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28, a senator by age 36, and vice president at age has often been said about Gore is at least 44. superÕcially persuasive, that he is one of the Gore throughout his career has proven his most noticeably insecure people to have risen intelligence and his work ethic. He is not natu- to such a high level in politics. He does not rally gifted in the skills of a modern politician. seem comfortable with who he is or how he is He can appear out of place on stage. His overly performing, and is constantly trying to choreographed debate performances against change. Gore frequently appeared to reinvent George W. Bush in 2000 were just some, but himself, alternating between the stiÖ and perhaps the most important, of the situations overly serious policy wonk and the overly in which Gore tried to be something that he aggressive debater, or acting out the part of was not. He is naturally stiÖ. His attempts to the passionate husband on the stage of the be otherwise come across as artiÕcial. national convention. Gore can overreach. Along the way he has Some opponents used various peculiar claimed to have been the creator of the Gore moments and personality quirks as a internet, the discoverer of environmental basis to label him a “head case.”9 When the problems at Love Canal, and the model for the artiÕciality is removed, though, Al Gore is a Oliver character in Erich Segal’s Love Story. serious, thoughtful, amazingly hard-working Each of these claims had some truth in it. individual. Ambition drove him to conduct With each, Gore inÔated his version beyond a himself in ways that did not always serve him reasonable facsimile of the truth. He can well. express himself with messianic zeal. This Gore is unlikely to inspire, but he is likely appeared most clearly in Earth in the Balance. to succeed with whatever task is at hand. The dangers we face are like the Holocaust or Considering Gore as President brings to mind Armageddon. Good and evil are the choices, the statement allegedly made by movie with his opponents representing evil. His producer Jack Warner when he heard that success on a policy issue such as the environ- Ronald Reagan was considering running for ment or his victory in a contest such as the governor of California in 1966. “Reagan for 2000 election, took on a signiÕcance that was Governor?” Warner said . “No, Jimmy Stewart strikingly self-absorbed. He was quoted as for Governor, Ronnie Reagan for best man.”10 telling aides, “I’m not like George Bush. If he Gore does seem better suited for a supporting wins or loses, life goes on. I’ll do anything to role. A senator, a Cabinet secretary, a person win.”8 This is the quintessential example of the who can imaginatively, energetically, but more importance Gore placed on his own success. narrowly manage a particular part of govern- Amateur psychoanalysis is the bane of ment without having to be the leader of an modern public Õgures. With that caveat, what entire people – that seems Gore’s forte.

8 Bill Sammon, At Any Cost (Washington: Regnery, 2001), 92. 9 Richard Brookhiser, “Weird Al,” National Review (November 22, 1999), at 32. The same magazine, no fan of Gore, also tried out “Apocalypse Gore” because of his views about looming environmental disaster (cover story, March 8, 1999), and used other unaÖectionate descriptors. 10 Matthew Dallek, The Right Moment (Free Press: New York, 2000), 174. There was a similarly rich comment made when another actor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, announced for governor in 2003. The former body-builder Republican is the husband of Democratic Senator Ted Kennedy’s niece, Maria Shriver. Kennedy said, “Listen, Arnold is great. And I never argue with Arnold, particularly when he’s holding me by my ankles upside down.” Gayle Fee Laura Raposa, “Inside Track: Ted K won’t back the Govern-ator,” Boston Herald ( June 26, 2003), at 18.

Green Bag • Winter 2004 153 Leslie H. Southwick

On the central issue of the early twenty-Õrst Herder Herder (1970). century, America’s role and methods in Õghting Gore, Albert (Sr.). Let the Glory Out: My terrorism, Al Gore has been an increasingly South and its Politics. New York: Viking (1972). stinging critic of President Bush’s policies. He Gore, Al. Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the has called the invasion of Iraq the worst foreign Human Spirit. Boston, et al.: Houghton- policy mistake in American history. He MiÒin (1992). accused the President of using the war to Gore, Al Tipper Gore. Joined at the Heart: exploit public fears for political gain. The The Transformation of the American Family. New passage of time will help judge the wisdom of York: Henry Holt (2002). the President’s approach as compared to the Gore, Tipper. Picture This: A Visual Diary. validity of Gore’s criticisms. It can be said now, New York: Broadway Books (1996). though, that Gore’s public statements that the Hillin, Hank, Al Gore Jr.: His Life and Career. President is not only wrong but is also unprin- New York: Birch Lane (1992). cipled signify that the former vice president Kaufman, Joseph. The World According to Al embraces fully the politics of challenging the Gore: An A-To-Z Compilation of His Opinions, integrity and motives of opponents, not just Positions, and Public Statements. Los Angeles: their policies. Renaissance Books (1999). Rating the potential of an also-ran should Maraniss, David Ellen Nakashima. The not rely on policies, since what a candidate Prince of Tennessee: The Rise of Al Gore. New says he would do may well not have been Yo rk , e t a l . : S i m o n Schuster (2000). factual once in oÓce. What is the right Milbank, Dana, Smashmouth: Two Years in approach to terrorism, and what would a the Gutter with Al Gore and George W. Bush. New President Gore actually have done, cannot be York: Basic Books (2001). reliable measures in this rating of presidential Sammon, Bill. At Any Cost: How Al Gore prospects. On balance, it appears that Gore Tried to Steal the Election. Washington, D.C.: would have been a solid, diligent, useful, but at Regnery (2001). times shrill and rancorous President. The Saunders, Debra J. The World According to doubts do not place him in the lower rankings Gore. San Francisco: Encounter Books (2000). of potential presidents. Yet they keep him Simon, Roger. Divided We Stand: How Al from rising to the level of a great prospect for Gore Beat George Bush and Lost the Presidency. the highest oÓce. An Al Gore Presidency New York: Crown (2001). likely would have been an average one. Tu rqu e, Bi l l. Inventing Al Gore. Boston, et al.: Houghton-MiÒin (2000). Bibliography Zelnick, Bob. Gore: A Political Life. Wash- Cockburn, Alexander JeÖrey St. Clair. Al ington: Regnery (1999). Gore: A User’s Manual. London, et al.: Verso Books (2000). 2000 Vice Presidential Goldman, Peter To m M a th e w s . Quest for Nominee – Democratic Party the Presidency: The 1988 Campaign. New York, et al.: Simon Schuster/Touchstone (1989). Joe Lieberman Goldman, Peter To m M a th e w s . Quest for the Presidency 1992. College Station: Texas Full Name: Joseph Isadore Lieberman. AM University Press (1994). State Represented: Connecticut. Gore, Albert (Sr.) The Eye of the Storm: A Birth: February 24, 1942, in Stamford, People’s Politics for the Seventies. New York: Connecticut.

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Age on Inauguration Day ( January 20, psychology at Quinnipiac College. 2001): 58 years, 11 months. First Wife: Elizabeth (Betty) Haas. Mar- Education: Stamford public schools; Yale ried in 1965, divorced 1981. She was working in University (1964 B.A.); Yale Law School (1967 Senator Abraham RibicoÖ’s oÓce when J.D.). Lieberman met her. She became a psychiatric Religion: Orthodox Jew, Õrst to be named social worker. to a major party presidential ticket. Children: Matthew (August 16, 1967- ) Ancestry: Lieberman’s maternal grandpar- teaches English in New Haven, Connecticut. ents were born in Austria, and Yiddish was Rebecca (February 25, 1969- ) is a lawyer, and their native language. in 2000 had been working for the Children’s Occupation: Attorney. Aid Society in New York. Public OÓces: Connecticut state senator Second Wife: Hadassah Freilich (March (1971-1981), majority leader (1975-1981); 28, 1948- ). She was born in Prague. Her candidate for Lieutenant Governor (1978), and parents, Samuel Freilich and Ella Wieder, for United States House of Representatives were both Nazi concentration camp survivors. (1980); state attorney general (1983-1989); Mr. Freilich was a lawyer and rabbi in Prague. United State Senator (1989- ); Democratic Her family moved to Massachusetts in 1949. vice-presidential nominee (2000); candidate She married Lieberman on March 20, 1983, for 2004 Democratic presidential nomination. the second marriage for each of them. The Home: Stamford, Connecticut. name “Hadassah,” meaning myrtle, is the Personal Characteristics: Described as a Hebrew version of “Esther.” “short man with the soft mouth and Children: Mrs. Lieberman had a child from loosening jowls of a friendly basset hound. her Õrst marriage, Ethan Tucker (December 1, He has what must be one of the least 1975- ), who graduated from Harvard in 1997 compelling voices in the Senate, a whiny, and in 2000 was doing rabbinical and graduate crumbling textured, old-Jewish man voice.” work at the Jewish Theological Seminary in (Traub, “Mildly Ambitious.”) He has blond New York. Ethan married his wife Ariela in hair that was graying by the time of his vice- 1999. Hana (March 15, 1988- ). presidential nomination. Discipline, patience, and serenity are his trademarks.
Father: Henry Lieberman (April 3, 1915- January 3, 1986). Drove a bakery truck, then The politics of vice presidential nominations owned a liquor store in Stamford, Connecti- often focus more on electoral calculations than cut. on nominee qualiÕcations. A balanced ticket Mother: Marcia Manger Lieberman geographically and even philosophically is fre- (November 1, 1914- ), daughter of Joe and quently a party’s goal. Other factors also can Minnie Manger, both Austrian natives who take precedence. At least once, the fact that emigrated in 1890 and 1912, respectively. the presidential nominee was viewed as having Siblings: Rietta (born 1945), married Gary widely suspected character Ôaws led to the Miller; she is a hospital social worker in selection of someone who could oÖset that. In Norman, Oklahoma. Ellen (born 1950), mar- 1844, the Whig Party nominated Henry Clay ried Bertram Garskof; she is artistic director for president. He was a man of great passions for a theater company in Bridgeport, Conn., and great abilities. The rumors, probably not while her husband is a playwright, radio true at that stage of Clay’s life, were that the producer, and actor, and also a professor of passions included too much wine and too

Green Bag • Winter 2004 155 Leslie H. Southwick many women. This caused the Whigs to add next year to prevent his classmates from getting to the ticket the “Christian statesman,” tired of him, then won the presidency of his Senator Theodore Frelinghuysen of New senior class. He matriculated at Yale University Jersey. Frelinghuysen was a man of obvious in 1960. The presidential election that fall public and private virtue. The ticket did not ended happily for him, as he had been inspired quite succeed. by John F. Kennedy. Lieberman would later In 2000, the morality burden for the write that Kennedy’s inaugural call to “ask what Democrats was not their presidential nominee you can do for your country” became a life-long but their presidential incumbent. Among the motivator. There was no student government means by which Vice President Al Gore could at Yale, but there were alternative outlets for a address the controversial legacy of President person of a political bent. The Ya l e Dai ly Ne ws Bill Clinton was with his vice presidential was the student-run newspaper. Through its selection. He chose the “conscience of the articles and opinions, the staÖ could write on Senate,” the openly and sincerely religious politics. He became chairman of the News in Senator Joseph Lieberman who had been the 1962, a position that helped gain him the Õrst prominent Democrat to state the obvious attention of a former Yale newspaper editor, – Clinton’s aÖair with a White House intern the conservative National Review editor was appalling. That Lieberman’s religion was William F. Buckley, Jr. That connection helped the Jewish faith made the selection historic. form the foundation for an odd collection of Joe Lieberman grew up in a middle class, supporters when Lieberman ran for the Senate ethnically diverse neighborhood in Stamford, 25 years later. Connecticut. His house until he was eight In the summer of 1963, Lieberman interned years old was a block from the railroad depot, in the Washington oÓce of Connecticut with a junk yard on one side and a six-family Senator Abraham RibicoÖ. Lieberman’s long- walk-up on the other, where the local bookie time support of civil rights is exempliÕed by lived. Joe’s father was a World War II veteran his participation in the 1963 March on who owned a package liquor store where the Washington led by Dr. Martin Luther King, radio was always tuned to a classical station. Jr., when King gave the “I Have a Dream” He retired shortly after being robbed for the speech. third time. The parents took their Jewish faith Lieberman’s fairness was tested in the fall seriously and instilled that in their children. of 1963, when a student group invited an The Liebermans seemed to be an archetypical opponent of civil rights to speak at Yale, immigrant family, where the virtues of faith, Alabama Governor George Wallace. Lieber- patriotism, and self-help were lived. man wrote an editorial for the News Another virtue learned was respect. The defending the invitation and Wallace’s right Lieberman parents were staunch Democrats, to appear and be heard. Lieberman journeyed but as their most famous son recalled years to Mississippi that fall in order to help in a later, the successful Republicans of his early project to register black voters for a mock years, such as President Dwight Eisenhower election. Since oÓcial registrations were and Connecticut Senator Prescott Bush, were largely being refused by state authorities, this considered in their family to be honorable men was a prelude to a more intense eÖort in the deserving of the respect even of opponents. summer of 1964 to force actual registrations. Lieberman’s political campaigning started at Lieberman wrote a senior thesis on long- least in high school. He was elected president time Connecticut Democratic leader John of his ninth and tenth grade classes, sat out the Bailey. During Lieberman’s Yale years, Bailey

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Campaign Poster

Green Bag • Winter 2004 157 Leslie H. Southwick was chairman both of the Democratic Lieberman had a well-organized campaign National Committee and of the state party. with many volunteers. Some Yale students Lieberman spent hours interviewing Bailey, assisted in door-to-door canvassing, including and called it his own private course on politi- a politically ambitious student from Arkansas cal science. Lieberman’s thesis on Bailey was named Bill Clinton. The two would become published in 1966 as The Power Broker. In the friends and political allies. Lieberman also had summer of 1964, Lieberman interned at the the signiÕcant support of New Haven’s Demo- Democratic National Committee with Bailey cratic mayor and of U.S. Senator Abe RibicoÖ, and attended the party’s national convention both of whom had diÓculties working with in Atlantic City. Marcus in the past. The challenger declared Lieberman received his undergraduate that he would be a “Strong New Voice for a degree in 1964 and continued at Yale Law Better New Haven.” Lieberman won the School. No sooner had he completed the three Democratic primary by 240 votes, and the years for his law degree than he announced his general election in November. He was on his candidacy for the New Haven Board of way. In time he would engage in political battle Aldermen. He withdrew because of doubts with the person who won the 1970 U.S. Senate that he met the residency requirement for race, Republican Lowell Weicker. oÓce. Lieberman began to practice law with a To supplement his low pay as a senator, Õrm in New Haven and was active in local Lieberman became counsel to the New Haven politics. In 1968, Lieberman supported Robert Equal Opportunity Commission and an Kennedy and, after Kennedy’s assassination in assistant dean at Yale. He would serve ten years early June, switched to working for Minnesota in the senate, the last six as majority leader. Senator Eugene McCarthy. Among his greatest interests was criminal Thwarted in his 1967 campaign for justice. He said that the liberal theories he had municipal oÓce, in 1970 the young lawyer gained at Yale had to yield to reality. If a liberal determined to run for the state senate. The is a conservative who had not yet been mugged, seat was held by the leader of the Lieberman was at least burglarized – twice. Connecticut senate, Ed Marcus, who initially Real people suÖering real crime made him sought the 1970 party nomination for the propose stiÖer criminal statutes than his United States Senate. He made it clear that if former ideology would have permitted. his U.S. Senate bid failed, he would run for In 1974 Lieberman was a signiÕcant policy re-election. Lieberman did not defer. As adviser in the campaign of Ella Grasso for Marcus pursued his federal ambitions, Lie- governor. She became that year the Õrst berman pursued the state senate seat. The woman elected governor of any state without incumbent Democrat U.S. Senator, Thomas having been preceded by her husband. At the J. Dodd, had been censured by his colleagues next session Lieberman was elected senate in 1967 for oÓcial misconduct. Senator Dodd majority leader. ran for reelection but was faced with strong Lieberman in one of his autobiographical opposition from the party leadership. Dodd works wrote openly about political ambition. withdrew as a Democrat and ran instead as an independent. An anti-war activist and As the years passed in the state senate, I began to think about what my next political minister, Joseph D. DuÖey, bested Marcus to opportunity might be. In politics, you start become the Democratic nominee. Marcus with a commitment to public service and then now shifted to seeking re-election to the state try to Õnd a good place to carry out that senate. commitment. But there are far too many

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variables for you to plot out a rigid career path. marijuana, but the square just wouldn’t.”13 Naturally, you will have goals, but you also The just-defeated congressional candidate have to keep your options open about where announced in December 1981 for state attor- you will be able to achieve those goals. I dreamed of being governor and, if I was lucky, ney general. He was elected to what he would ending up in the U.S. Senate someday.11 call the best job that he ever had. During the campaign a mutual friend connected him with One of the opportunities was his eÖort to the woman who would soon become his be nominated as lieutenant governor in 1978, second wife. His initial telephone call to her but he lost at the state party convention. He in New York City was nontraditional: “I’m continued as senate majority leader. In 1980, running for attorney general, and because it is another potential opportunity was a race for Easter Sunday, I have no political schedule. I’d the United States House of Representatives. love to meet you, but if I can’t do it today, I Lieberman became the Democratic nominee won’t be able to come to New York until after and had a 19 percent lead in polls three weeks election day in November.” Hadassah Freilich before the November election. His GOP Turner, also recently divorced, was intrigued. opponent, Larry DeNardis, whom Lieberman They were married in 1983. described as a moderate college professor, Lieberman as attorney general “took action charged that Lieberman was a high-tax, against fake charities, crooked car dealers and proÔigate spending Democrat. With Ronald gouging merchants.”14 On November 7, 1984, Reagan at the head of the ticket that year, there he was one of two advocates before the was a rising tide that raised many Republican United States Supreme Court defending a boats. DeNardis reached victory, with 52 Connecticut statute that gave an absolute percent to Lieberman’s 46 percent. Even right for workers not to work on their though Lieberman “was considered a comer in Sabbath. A third attorney sought to sustain state politics … , the reason for the result lies in the Connecticut Supreme Court’s striking the ethnic heritage that is so important in this down the statute. The U.S. Supreme Court, area and the Republican leanings of so many through Chief Justice Warren Burger, found Italian-American voters.”12 the statute unconstitutional as constituting Besides electoral defeat, Lieberman was an establishment of religion.15 undergoing marital crisis. He and his wife Lieberman was re-elected in a landslide in Betty Haas had careers that Lieberman would 1986. In 1988, after six years as attorney later describe as going in diÖerent directions. general, he decided to take on the daunting No one in his family had been divorced, and task of challenging three-term Senator Lowell he saw it as a sign of failure. Divorce did come, Weicker. The incumbent was a Republican in 1981, but the two remain more than civil. maverick, whose national fame arose from the Betty Haas was asked in 2000 whether she 1974 Senate Watergate Committee on which had known her former husband to use drugs. Weicker had proved to be one of President She jokingly replied, “I tried to get him to try Nixon’s harshest and earliest Republican

11 Joseph I. Lieberman, In Praise of Public Life (New York: Touchstone, 1999), 58. 12 Michael Barone and Grant Ujifusa, The Almanac of American Politics 1982 (Washington: Barone Co., 1981), 190. 13 Joe and Hadassah Lieberman, An Amazing Adventure (New York: Simon Schuster, 2003), 10. 14 Stephen Singular, Joe Lieberman: The Historic Choice (New York: Kensington, 2000), 35, quoting Almanac of American Politics (2000). 15 Estate of Thornton v. Caldor, Inc., 472 U.S. 703 (1985).

Green Bag • Winter 2004 159 Leslie H. Southwick critics. This independence made him popular Saturday. It is a day in which the observant Jew across party lines, but he had often been is insulated from the world in order to elected by quite narrow margins. Lieberman contemplate and pray but not to work. The was encouraged by Democratic leaders, Democratic state convention was during day- including Massachusetts Senator (and future light hours on a Saturday. Lieberman did not rival for the 2004 presidential nomination) attend, but his prerecorded convention speech John Kerry, who was chairman of the did. Comparisons to Eric Liddell, the Scottish Democrats’ senatorial campaign committee. Christian portrayed in the 1981 movie Chariots Lieberman trailed badly in polling against of Fire, were obvious. Liddell was an Olympic Weicker until just weeks before the election. runner, but his best event was held on a Sunday The Democrat had climbed from a 25 percent at the 1924 Paris Olympics. He refused to run, deÕcit in the polls taken when he was Õrst entreaties from the Prince of Wales matched in polling against Weicker in late 1987, notwithstanding. He never compromised, but to 16 percent behind early in the fall of 1988, to an alternative event was found, which he won. a tie in a poll released in mid-October 1988. A Lieberman’s religious observances are from television ad that began running in October is all indications sincere, deeply felt, and by the remembered as a key factor. It used a cartoon of standards of the modern culture, quite strict. Weicker as a hibernating bear, stirring and Lieberman will not drive or be driven during growling only as elections approached. This the Sabbath, and will instead walk. He will put a visual image to what many voters may even walk the four miles between home and the already have believed, that the incumbent was Senate. But on important Saturday votes, rare self-satisÕed and self-absorbed.16 as they are, he will not abstain from attending Of some signiÕcance in Lieberman’s climb but will appear and cast his vote. Lieberman was the growing conservative Republican believes that he should, like doctors, ignore opposition to Weicker. It was led in part by strict rules of observance when necessary for William F. Buckley, Jr. of the National Review. the community’s health and safety. In his Õrst 11 Buckley and other conservatives had long years as a senator, he attended Saturday crisis despaired about Weicker, whose liberal votes meetings at the White House, and Senate ses- made him their least favorite Republican. The sions perhaps 30 times. During his Õrst Satur- GOP had lost its Senate majority in 1986 and day Senate session in 1989, fellow Senator Al did not appear likely to regain it in 1988. Gore asked about his plans. Lieberman said Therefore Weicker’s importance in the control that he would clean up in the Senate gym and of the Senate appeared minimal. Lieberman sleep on a cot in his oÓce. Instead, Gore took won the race by a 10,000-vote margin, which him to his parents’ rooms in the Methodist was less than one percent of the votes cast. It Apartments across the street from the Capitol. was enough. Even if Liddell as portrayed in the movie is During the campaign, Lieberman’s compli- too high a standard, Senator Lieberman does ance with orthodox Jewish practices became strive mightily and exceptionally to practice his public in a dramatic way. Jewish observance of religion. Few are the politicians or lay people of Sabbath is to withdraw from usual activities any faith who work as hard as Lieberman to be from sundown on Friday until sundown on 24/6 people in a 24/7 culture.17

16 Singular, Joe Lieberman, at 42-43. 17 John McCormick, “Joe Lieberman: A 24/6 Guy,” Chicago Tribune (November 28, 2003), Section 2, p. 1.

160 7 Green Bag 2d 141 Presidential Also-Rans Running Mates 2000

In the Senate, Lieberman joined the majorities in both houses of Congress since moderate Democratic Leadership Council, 1952, and in 1996 would secure majorities in formed in 1985 as an alternative to Democrats consecutive elections for the Õrst time since who appeared too liberal domestically and 1928. Lieberman easily won in a year for too weak and isolationist in international historic Democratic defeats. aÖairs. Lieberman said that the DLC was When California considered a popular formed from a “realization of how far [the initiative in 1995 to ban aÓrmative action, Democratic Party] had strayed from the heart Lieberman declared that “if you discriminate of America”; he felt a new direction was in favor of one group on the basis of race, you needed from the “old ideas that no longer thereby discriminate against another group worked.” Bill Clinton had chaired the DLC on the basis of race.” He appeared shocked by prior to his 1992 election, and Al Gore had the tempest this caused among civil rights been a founding member. Lieberman would groups. Lieberman said this was “the Õrst become chairman as well. In his 1999 book, time in my public life that I was not on the Lieberman declared that his own party’s civil rights side.” In 1998, Lieberman single issue constituencies as well as the supported limited air strikes against Iraq. The Republican ones have distorted the political senator said that Iraq’s failure to permit process and made it more confrontational. United Nations inspectors to perform their Lieberman in his Õrst two terms in the job required what he called decisive action. Senate was more conservative than a majority He said “we’ve got to draw a line and send a of his party colleagues. The Õrst-year senator larger message to other countries around the was one of only six Democrats to support the world that we’re not going to tolerate rogue Republican plan to cut the capital gains tax nations developing chemical and biological rate. He was one of only ten Democratic sena- weapons capacity with which they can tors to support the Õrst President Bush in the damage or blackmail a lot of the rest of the resolution authorizing the use of force to evict world.”18 Saddam Hussein’s forces from Kuwait in 1991. It was not the everyday senatorial concerns He also supported the President’s decision to of war, peace, and prosperity that gave send forces to topple Manuel Noriega of Lieberman national prominence. Instead, Panama. On the other hand, Lieberman controversies surrounding the Democratic opposed the nomination of Clarence Thomas president, Bill Clinton, brought him atten- to the Supreme Court after initially supporting tion. When the president had a sexual tryst him. The allegations raised by a former with White House intern Monica Lewinsky, Thomas staÖer, Anita Hill, changed Lieber- and then arguably lied about it under oath in man’s mind. He thought President Clinton’s a deposition, many Democrats were either “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy regarding gays in silent or supportive. “It is just about sex,” the military was not suÓciently supportive of defenders stated. Even at that level, the interests of homosexual soldiers. Lieberman lamented that the aÖair “is the In 1994 Lieberman won re-election with 67 most vivid example of the virus of lost percent of the vote over Dr. Jerry Labriola, a standards being passed back and forth among Republican state senator. It was a strongly the entertainment culture, the news media, Republican year. The GOP won its Õrst and government, making each more ill.”19

18 Singular, Lieberman, at 55-56. 19 Lieberman, In Praise of Public Life, at 151.

Green Bag • Winter 2004 161 Leslie H. Southwick

Lieberman had been assisted in his Õrst ensuing years, the outcome would be as political race, one for the state senate in 1970, by bitterly debated as any in history. What is the youthful Yale student Clinton. Thus it was beyond debate is that Lieberman gained a from a long friendship that Lieberman favorable national reputation, broke one more agonized and then Õnally decided to speak barrier of participation by the various about how this conduct had fallen woefully components of our diverse society, and short. On September 3, 1998, Lieberman from appeared thoughtful, moderate, and virtuous. the Ôoor of the Senate condemned the In his book on the 2000 campaign, he is president. He said that Clinton’s lying about almost always generous to his Republican the relationship made him disappointed and opponents. He said that he was the “hawk” in angry. He felt a great sense of loss to the the post-election strategy sessions about country from the damage that had been litigation: give no quarter, avoid no avenue of inÔicted on “the proud legacy of his presidency,” possible litigation, he counseled. On Friday, for which an accounting was needed. The December 8, when a majority on the Florida senator said that we are all sinners, but that Supreme Court ordered a recount in the Clinton’s oÓce made it necessary for him to be Democrats’ favored precincts, victory seemed held to a higher standard. In the immediate thrillingly close. The Gores and Liebermans aftermath of The Speech, however, Lieberman met for a celebratory gathering at the Vice also said that he felt Clinton had the morality President’s house. When they Õnished, the and integrity to be president. When the Senate Jewish Sabbath had begun. The happy voted on the impeachment charges, Lieberman foursome ended their evening together by voted to acquit. walking down Wisconsin Avenue the two President Clinton would be able to Õnish his miles back to the Liebermans’ home, Secret term after all. By the spring of 2000, Al Gore Service vehicles discreetly shadowing them. became his party’s certain choice to succeed Four days later when the United States him. For a running mate, he considered House Supreme Court settled the exhausting matter, Democratic leader Dick Gephardt, and Sena- Lieberman felt the extreme swing in emotion tors Evan Bayh of Indiana, John Edwards of to agonizing defeat. He agreed with North Carolina, Bob Graham of Florida, Tom dissenting Justice John Paul Stevens that the Harkin of Iowa, and John Kerry of Massachu- Court’s majority would cause cynicism about setts. On the day that Lieberman had been told the judicial function: that the choice would become known, a reporter informed his press secretary that it Although we may never know with complete would be Senator Edwards. It was fairly late in certainty the identity of the winner of this year’s presidential election, the identity of the the day and nothing oÓcial had been stated by loser is perfectly clear. It is the Nation’s the Gore campaign. Lieberman woke up the conÕdence in the judge as an impartial next day, Ôipped on the television, and heard a guardian of the rule of law.20 homestate television reporter state that “our very own Senator Lieberman” would be Gore’s Reactions to Bush v. Gore are a litmus test of running mate. And so he was. political views. Informed analyses of the The 2000 campaign was closely fought and decision of course arise from more than some of the ballots endlessly counted. In the whether the outcome favored or blocked the

20 Joe and Hadassah Lieberman, Amazing Adventure, at 261, quoting Bush v. Gore, 531 U.S. 98, 123, 128-29 (2000) (Stevens, J., dissenting).

162 7 Green Bag 2d 141 Presidential Also-Rans Running Mates 2000 commentator’s preferred presidential candi- candidate. He said that he would be a “diÖerent date. Still, like only a very few other Supreme kind of Democrat,” one who sought to eschew Court decisions in history, Bush v. Gore excessive partisanship. stirred the passions more than the intellects. When he announced, Lieberman’s name Perhaps the invested emotional capital that identiÕcation and favorable impression left built up over the 35 days after the election from the 2000 election made him the became too large for those who lost their frontrunner in polling. By the end of 2003, investment, and too precious to those who though, he was lagging behind. He seemed saw it rewarded, for entirely dispassionate unable and unwilling to tap into the anger commentary. and even hatred expressed by many Senator Lieberman endured criticism for Democrats for the policies and personality of simultaneously running for re-election to the President Bush. Senate in 2000, but state law allowed the dual On such matters as the Õlibuster of judicial races. Senator Lieberman became the third nominees, raised and pursued by Senate vice presidential nominee to be re-elected to Democrats as Lieberman and others cam- the Senate at the same election. Only Lyndon paigned for the Democratic nomination, the Johnson in 1960 won both races; Lloyd Connecticut senator has joined with his Bentsen in 1988 and Lieberman both lost the almost unanimous party in support. On other vice presidency but were returned to the issues, he has remained true to his moderate Senate. Lieberman beat Waterbury Republi- instincts. At a debate held on the day that can Mayor Phil Giordano with 64 percent of Lieberman’s 2000 teammate, Al Gore, the vote. endorsed another contender, former Vermont Early in 2001 Senator Lieberman joined Governor Howard Dean, he proved himself a Herbert Kohl of Wisconsin and Hillary lone voice in a vigorously anti-war party. He Clinton of New York in introducing the referred to Saddam Hussein as “a homicidal Media Marketing Accountability Act. It dictator, [who] killed hundreds of thousands provided that the marketing of violent or of his people, invaded two of his neighbors, sexual material to children would be a form used chemical weapons, supported terrorism of deceptive advertising. It was the continua- and suppressed the rights of his people. He tion of a cause that Lieberman and Al Gore was a danger to us, a ticking time bomb. I’m had both supported in previous years, namely, glad that he is gone.” condemning the coarseness and depravity of Lieberman indicated that Al Gore had not many aspects of commercial entertainment. called him after deciding to endorse Dean, and Lieberman was a leader in 2002 in that the decision caught him “completely oÖ promoting the creation of the Department of guard.” The senator accused Gore of leading Homeland Security. He also supported the the Party back to when it had “too often been resolution authorizing President Bush to use in the political wilderness” by “supporting a force against Saddam Hussein. Lieberman candidate who is so fundamentally opposed to publicly stated on several occasion in 2001- the basic transformation that Bill Clinton 2002 that he would not run for his party’s brought to the Democratic Party in 1992.” He presidential nomination in 2004 if his benefac- described that transformation as one that tor, Al Gore, decided to make his own race. “reassured people we were strong on defense, Gore took himself out of contention in we were Õscally responsible, we cared about December 2002. Within a month, on January values, we were interested in cutting taxes for 13, 2003, Lieberman announced that he was a the middle class and working with business to

Green Bag • Winter 2004 163 Leslie H. Southwick create jobs.”21 The senator appeared genuinely in the twenty-Õrst century who is a centrist, is concerned that the Democratic Party was cerebral, is a compromiser who seeks to blend shifting to a direction that would only lead to divergent concerns. With those qualities, failure. though, also needs to come some basic conviction. What many saw as Lieberman’s Analysis of QualiÕcations great triumph when he gave his 1998 speech Joe Lieberman has been called the Republicans’ of despair about President Clinton’s actions, favorite Democrat. When he was chosen for might also be seen as a symbol of his most vice president in 2000, prominent Republican worrisome weakness. Would he have the and former Cabinet secretary Bill Bennett fortitude to lead when the diÓcult, not fully stated that Lieberman was “a man of principle, compromisable decisions had to be made? intelligence, and civility.” He is said to occupy Senator and Mrs. Lieberman wrote a joint the “conservative wing of his party on issues book on the vice presidential campaign. It such as defense spending, tax cuts, school chronicles their balancing of faith, marriage, vouchers and, notoriously, the entertainment children and campaigning. Balance is one of industry.”22 His favor with both parties is in the best words to describe Senator Lieberman. part the result of his style. Many modern This orthodox Jewish politician may have candidates display the excessive partisanship, adopted Ben Franklin’s venerable adage – “all harsh language, and assumption of opponents’ things in moderation.” In an age of excess, iniquity that occurs in popular if rarely Lieberman is consistently mild. For him, profound cross-Õre television political com- extremism in the defense of any issue is a vice; mentary. Not Lieberman. moderation in the pursuit of a worthy goal is a One author said that Lieberman is a “stern virtue. That may explain why he was chosen by moralist with a gooey center.”23 The senator Al Gore in 2000. It is also part of the reason sees the best in everyone, friend and oppo- that he likely will not be nominated for nent. Any criticism is likely to be mixed with President in 2004. praise, as demonstrated in his 1998 speech On balance, Joe Lieberman would have against Clinton; the President of course was been a good but not likely a great president. both friend and party leader. Lieberman indicated philosophical agreement with limi- Bibliography tations on aÓrmative action in 1995, but after Lieberman, Joseph Michael D’Orso, In being placed on the national ticket in 2000, Praise of Public Life: The Honor And Purpose Of he endorsed the more traditional party view. Political Service. New York: Touchstone/Simon He was, of course, only number two on the Schuster (2000). ticket. Yet the idea has been expressed that he Lieberman, Joseph I., Hadassah is such a “nice fellow” that he cannot make Lieberman. An Amazing Adventure: Joe and and stick with a tough and controversial Hadassah’s Personal Notes on the 2000 Campaign. decision. New York: Simon Schuster (2003). It is diÓcult to criticize the rare politician Lieberman, Joseph I. The Power Broker: A

21 Adam Nagourney and Edward Wyatt, “Democrats Wrestle with the Gore Factor in Debate,” New York Times (December 10, 2003), at A22. Diane Cardwell Edward Wyatt, “Call by Gore Does Little to Soothe Lieberman,” New York Times (December 10, 2003), at A22. Joseph Straw, “Gore Endorsement Blindsides Joe,” New Haven Register (December 10, 2003). 22 James Traub, “Mildly Ambitious,” New York Times Magazine ( June 10, 2001). 23 Id.

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Biography of John M. Bailey, Modern Political Boss. Pooley, Eric. “Gore’s Leap of Faith.” Time Boston: Houghton-MiÒin (1966). (August 21, 2000), at 24. Lightman, David. “DiÖerent Democrat: Singular, Stephen, with Cherry Mosgrave Mission, Joe Lieberman Promises a Distinctive Paula Klaris. Joe Lieberman: The Historic Campaign.” Hartford Courant (January 14, Choice. New York: Kensington (2000). 2003), at 1. Traub, Ja m e s . “Mildly Ambitious.” New McCormick, John. “Joe Lieberman: A 24/6 York Times Magazine (June 10, 2001), at 58. Guy.” Chicago Tribune (November 28, 2003), Victor, Kirk; Richard E. Cohen David Section 2, p. 1. Baumann. “Lieberman: Pros Cons.” National Nordlinger, Jay. “Orthodox Democrat: The Journal (August 12, 2000), at 2590. Fall of Joe Lieberman.” National Review Weicker, Lowell P. Maverick: A Life in Poli- (December 31, 2000), at 34. tics. New York: Little, Brown Co. (1995). B

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