Joe Lieberman (SIADD)

Joseph Isadore "Joe" Lieberman (born February 24, 1942) is the 67th Secretary of State and former junior United States Senator from Connecticut. Lieberman was first elected to the United States Senate in 1988, and was elected to his fourth term on November 7, 2006. In the 2000 U.S. presidential election, Lieberman was the Democratic candidate for Vice President, running with presidential nominee Al Gore, becoming the first Jewish candidate on a major American political party presidential ticket. He and his running mate won the popular vote, but ultimately failed to gain the electoral votes needed to win the heavily controversial election. Lieberman ran for re-election to the U.S. Senate while he was also Gore's running mate, and he was re-elected by the voters of Connecticut. He attempted to become the Democratic nominee in the 2004 Presidential election, but was unsuccessful.

During his re-election bid in 2006, he lost the Democratic Party primary election, but won re-election in the general election as a third party candidate under the party label "Connecticut for Lieberman." Lieberman is now officially listed in Senate records for the 110th Congress as an "Independent Democrat", and sits as part of the Senate Democratic Caucus in the 110th Congress. But since his speech at the 2008 Republican Convention endorsing John McCain for President, Lieberman no longer attends Democratic Senate Caucus leadership strategy meetings or policy lunches. On November 5th, 2008, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D) and Joe Lieberman met to discuss his future role with the Democratic Party.

Lieberman remains a registered Democrat and continues to vote with the Democrats in the Senate most of the time. He has been one of the Senate's strongest advocates for continued prosecution of the war in Iraq. He is also a consistent supporter of Israel. On domestic issues, he strongly supports free trade economics. He has also opposed fillibustering Republican judicial appointments. With Lynne Cheney and others, Lieberman co-founded American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA). Lieberman is a supporter of abortion rights and the rights of gays and lesbians to adopt children and be protected with hate crime legislation. Lieberman has also voted with Republicans on some ethical issues, and is one of the Senate's leading opponents of violence in video games and on television. Lieberman describes himself as being "genuinely an Independent," saying "I agree more often than not with Democrats on domestic policy. I agree more often than not with Republicans on foreign and defense policy."

On November 10th, Lieberman would be announced that he would be then President-Elect McCain choice for Secretary of State. The wildcard choice would have Congress confirm Lieberman on the 23rd of January as the 67th Secretary of State.

Personal life
Lieberman was born in Stamford, Connecticut, the son of Marcia (née Manger) and Henry Lieberman. He received his BA in politics and economics from Yale University in 1964 and was the first member of his family to graduate from college. At Yale he was editor of the Yale Daily News and a member of the Elihu Club. He then attended Yale Law School, receiving his LLB law degree in 1967. After graduation from law school, Lieberman worked for a New Haven-based law firm, Wiggin & Dana LLP.

A spokesperson told The Hartford Courant in 1994 that Lieberman received an educational deferment from the Vietnam War draft when he was an undergraduate and law student from 1960 to 1967. Upon graduating from law school at age 25, Lieberman qualified for a family deferment because he was already married and had one child, Matt.

Marriages and children
Lieberman met his first wife, Betty Haas, at the congressional office of Senator Abraham Ribicoff (D-CT), where they worked as summer student interns. They married in 1965 while Joe Lieberman was in law school. They had two children – Matt and Rebecca. Betty, who is also Jewish, later worked as a psychiatric social worker. In 1981, the couple divorced. When asked about the divorce in an interview with New York Magazine, Lieberman said, "one of the differences we had was in levels of religious observance," adding, "I'm convinced if that was the only difference, we wouldn't have gotten divorced."

In 1982, he met his second wife, Hadassah Freilich Tucker while he was running for Attorney General of Connecticut. Hadassah Lieberman is the child of a Holocaust survivor. According to Washington Jewish Week, Lieberman called her for a date because he thought it would be interesting to go out with someone named Hadassah. (Hadassah is the name of the Women's Zionist Organization of America). Since March 2005, Hadassah Lieberman has worked for Hill & Knowlton, a lobbying firm based in New York City, as a senior counselor in its health and pharmaceuticals practice. She has held senior positions at the Hospital of Saint Raphael in New Haven, CT, the American Committee for Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem, Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials-International (APCO), Pfizer, National Research Council, Hoffmann-La Roche, and Lehman Brothers.

Joe and Hadassah Lieberman have a daughter, Hani. Lieberman also has a stepson from Hadassah's previous marriage, Ethan Tucker. Matt Lieberman graduated from Yale University in 1989, and from Yale Law School in 1994. He is the Head of School of Greenfield Hebrew Academy in Atlanta, GA. Rebecca Lieberman graduated from Barnard College in 1991, and from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1997. She is married to Jacob Wisse. Ethan Tucker graduated from Harvard College in 1997 and was a rabbinical student at the Jewish Theological Seminary. Lieberman is also related to Disney Channel star Raviv Ullman of Phil of the Future.

Religion
Lieberman is an Orthodox Jew, though he was less observant in 1965 when he married Betty Haas, a Reform Jew. Since the death in 1967 of Lieberman's grandmother, a deeply religious immigrant, he found renewed interest in religious observance. His second wife, Hadassah, is also an observant Orthodox Jew. "Hadassah calls herself my right wing," says Lieberman. In Lieberman's 1988 upset of Republican Party incumbent Senator Lowell Weicker, his religious observance was mostly viewed in terms of inability to campaign on Shabbat. This changed when Gore chose Lieberman as the running mate; a Lieberman press officer who spoke on condition of anonymity said:

“	He refers to himself as observant, as opposed to Orthodox, because he doesn't follow the strict Orthodox code and doesn't want to offend the Orthodox, and his wife feels the same way. ”	  The Liebermans keep a kosher home and observe Shabbat, but do not adhere fully to the requirements of Halakha.

Lieberman has said that there is currently "a constitutional place for faith in our public life". He attends Kesher Israel Congregation in Georgetown, Washington, DC and Beth Hamedrosh Hagodol - B'nai Israel, The Westville Synagogue, New Haven, Connecticut. He also attends Congregation Agudath Sholom in Stamford.

Career
Lieberman was elected as a "reform Democrat" to the Connecticut Senate in 1970, where he served for 10 years, including the last six as Majority Leader. He suffered his first defeat in Connecticut elections in the Reagan landslide year of 1980, losing the race for the Third District Congressional seat to Republican Lawrence Joseph DeNardis, a state senator from suburban Hamden with whom he had worked closely on bipartisan legislative efforts. From 1982 to 1988, he served as Connecticut Attorney General and emphasized consumer protection and environmental enforcement.

U.S. Senate tenure
In 1988, Lieberman defeated moderate Republican Lowell Weicker to win election to the United States Senate and was re-elected in 1994 and 2000. Like Bill Clinton and Dick Gephardt, Lieberman served as chair of the Democratic Leadership Council.

Lieberman was first elected to the United States Senate as a Democrat in the 1988 election, by a margin of 10,000 votes. He scored the nation's biggest political upset that year, after being backed by a coalition of Democrats and unaffiliated voters with support from conservative Republicans, who were disappointed in three-term Republican incumbent Lowell Weicker's moderate voting record and personal style. During the campaign, he received support from the Connecticut's Cuban-American community which was unhappy with Weicker. Lieberman has since remained firmly anti-Castro. Six years later, Lieberman made history by winning by the largest landslide ever in a Connecticut Senate race, drawing 67 percent of the vote and beating his opponent by more than 350,000 votes.

In 1998, Lieberman was the first prominent Democrat to publicly challenge Bill Clinton for the judgment exercised in his affair with Monica Lewinsky. However, he voted against removing Clinton from office by impeachment. In 2000, while concurrently running for the vice presidency, Lieberman was elected to a third Senate term with 64 percent of the vote easily defeating the Republican Philip Giordano.

When control of the Senate switched from Republicans to Democrats in June 2001, Lieberman became Chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, with oversight responsibilities for a broad range of government activities. He was also a member of the Environment and Public Works Committee and chair of its Subcommittee Clean Air, Wetlands and Private Property; the Armed Services Committee, where he chaired the Airland Subcommittee and sat on the Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities; and the Small Business Committee. When Republicans gained control of the Senate in January 2003, Lieberman resumed his role as ranking minority member of the committees he had once chaired.

In the 110th Congress, Lieberman is Chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which is responsible for assuring the efficiency and effectiveness of the Federal Government. In addition, he is a member of the Environment and Public Works Committee; Senate Armed Services Committee, where he is Chairman of the Subcommittee on Air Land Forces and sits on the Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities; and the Small Business Committee.

Committee assignments

 * Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship


 * Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs (Chairman)
 * As Chairman of the full committee, Sen. Lieberman is an ex officio member of all subcommittees.
 * Committee on Armed Services


 * Subcommittee on Airland (Chairman)


 * Subcommittee on Personnel


 * Subcommittee on SeaPower