Al Gore pays tribute to former running mate Joe Lieberman, 82, as hundreds gather for funeral at his synagogue: 2020 Democratic candidate reemerges for Connecticut memorial service and remembers late Senator as a ‘mensch’

Former Vice President Al Gore praised the late Sen. Joe Lieberman as a “mensch” while revealing the deep differences that grew between them as the former Democrat strayed on partisan politics and security issues.

Gore, who has retired from electoral politics, attended funeral services for Lieberman in Lieberman’s hometown of Stamford, Connecticut, and spoke about how the two men grew apart after their bitter defeat in the 2020 presidential election.

After hitting the road with their wives, the men later became divided over Lieberman’s support for the Iraq War and his decision to back Republican John McCain.

“I was tempted to get angry at times, frustrated by Joe’s stubbornness and disappointed that he was taking a path that I thought was wrong,” he said. “And I know that his disappointment and my disgust for him were certainly just as deep. So the story could have ended there. And if we had, we would have reached a dead end in what was once a loving and fruitful relationship,” he said.

‘But it didn’t stop there. We still had a turn. We both knew deep down that the strong foundation of our friendship and what we had in common was so much bigger and stronger than what drove us apart during those years,” he said.

Gore, who has issued stark warnings about climate change throughout his career, also issued stark warnings about the country’s political culture, speaking of “rabbit holes” and the “echo chamber.”

“And spending long enough in the echo chamber leads to a new form of AI, artificial madness,” he joked.

‘I don’t mean it merely as a humorous phrase. “I mean to refer to QAnon, election denial, climate denial, even the revival of the Flat Earth Society, if you can believe that,” he said.

“And this is a form of resentment that has the potential to divide our country, but we also have a strong foundation and common beliefs and values ​​that are stronger than what divides us.”

It came in a eulogy in which he hailed his former running mate and four-term senator as a mensch, a Yiddish term.

“Those who seek its definition will find it less in dictionaries than in the way Joe Lieberman lived his life: friendship over anger, reconciliation as a form of grace,” he said. “We can learn some crucial lessons from the life of Joe Lieberman about how to heal the resentment in our country today.”

Lieberman, who died this week after a fall at his New York home, was the first Jewish candidate to run on a major party ticket, a longtime senator and co-founder of the No Labels group that is looking for a candidate to lead the to challenge major parties. fear in the hearts of some Democratic operatives.

Top Connecticut Democrats, including Senators Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy and Governor Ned Lamont — Lieberman’s former rival for the Senate seat — shared similar sentiments.

Lamont said his introduction to Lieberman started “on an inauspicious note” when they competed against each other in 2006. After Lamont defeated incumbent Lieberman in the Democratic primary for his Senate seat, Lieberman ran as an independent and defeated Lamont.

Lamont said Lieberman loved Frank Sinatra songs, especially “My Way.” “He did it his way,” Lamont said. ‘He never quite fit into that Republican or Democratic box. I think maybe in a strange way I helped free him, because when he beat me – he beat me pretty well, by the way – he won as an independent.”

Lamont said Lieberman “was always a calming presence” and a “bridge over troubled waters when you see the partisan shooting from both directions.”

Blumenthal recalled Lieberman’s “tremendous achievements,” including helping form the Department of Homeland Security and advocating for civil rights, voting rights, women’s reproductive freedom and LGBTQ rights. “But the greatest achievement of his life was his marriage to Hadassah and their children and grandchildren,” Blumenthal said.

The services were held at Congregation Agudath Sholom in Stamford. For Lieberman, a self-described observant Jew who followed the rules of the Jewish Sabbath from sundown on Friday to sundown on Saturday, the congregation played a key role early in his life.

He once recalled how the congregation’s former synagogue building was “a place that gave me the first sense of religion; a very special elevation,” according to a message on the municipality’s website.

‘I feel very happy; my loyalty to Jewish tradition is a real asset,” he said. “Religious Catholics and Protestants find a bond of common value with my beliefs and position. This makes me so proud to be an American.”

Lieberman’s youngest daughter, Hana Lowenstein, who moved to Israel with her family in 2018, tearfully said she prayed, “Please God, give my father many more years.” Show him my children’s bar mitzvahs, their weddings, and his great-grandchildren.’ But she said God “had other plans.”

Lowenstein said that observing the Jewish Sabbath was “very dear” to her father and that he would walk 5 miles to observe the Sabbath ban on riding in a motor vehicle. “You were literally someone who sanctified God’s name through everything you did,” she said.

Matthew Lieberman, the former senator’s son from his first marriage, said Lieberman was “a blessing to all of us” but that “a solid portion of people” nevertheless developed a hatred for him.

Despite that hostility, Matthew Lieberman said his father encouraged others not to let those differences turn into hatred. “We’re not the Hatfields and McCoys here,” Matthew Lieberman said. “We are Americans, we are fellow citizens of the greatest country in the history of the world. We are all human and we are all we have.”

Lieberman, a former Senate leader and attorney general, was long known for his pragmatic, independent streak. After losing the chance to become vice president to Democrat Gore, he almost became Republican John McCain’s running mate in 2008. Conservatives, however, opposed the idea of ​​tapping Lieberman, who was known for his support of gay rights, civil rights and abortion. rights and environmental issues, while taking an aggressive stance on military and national security issues.

President Joe Biden on Thursday called Lieberman a friend, someone who was “principled, steadfast and unafraid to stand up for what he thought was right.”

“Joe believed in a shared purpose to serve something bigger than ourselves,” Biden, who served in the Senate with Lieberman for 20 years, said in his statement. “He lived the values ​​of his faith as he worked to mend the wounds of the world.”

Lieberman came tantalizingly close to winning the vice presidency in the contentious 2000 presidential election, which was decided by a 537-vote victory for George W. Bush over Gore in Florida, after a lengthy recount, legal challenges and a decision by the Supreme Court. He was the first Jewish candidate to win a major party presidential nomination.

Over the past decade, Lieberman has helped lead No Labels, a third-party centrist movement that has said it will offer yet-to-be-named candidates for president and vice president this year. Some groups tied to Democrats oppose the effortfearing this will help presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump win the White House.

Lieberman and his wife Hadassah have four children.