(March 27) [I posted this within about 75 minutes after the announcement of the death of Joe Lieberman. I meant to go back and write a lot more, but other work overtook me. Lieberman was a great man.]
Former Democratic vice presidential nominee and Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, who died unexpectedly today, was one of his generation’s finest public servants.
There will be much more to say about him in the coming days, but for now, let it be on the record that he was a gentleman of great graciousness, an exemplar of old-school bipartisanship, and a patriot of the first rank.
Again and again, I have cited his vice presidential debate in 2000 with Republican Dick Cheney as the very model of how civil discussion can and should be conducted, to the great benefit of the voting public. A man of the center-left, he tried and usually succeeded in following his mother’s advice (as he recounted in the debate) to “be positive.”
Just last night, indeed, having absolutely no idea that Lieberman suffered a fall, I was saying to my wife how much I missed him in public office. A man of deep faith and consummate decency, Lieberman was a good and faithful servant to God and country.
May he rest in God’s eternal joy.
