Senator Lieberman, I was very proud when Al Gore selected you as his running mate in 2000. To be honest, you would not have been my first choice, but I had deep respect for you and as an American Jew, I was very excited that for the first time one of my co-religionists was considered worthy of being on a major party's presidential ticket. I volunteered for the Gore-Lieberman campaign, first in Massachusetts where I was finishing up my undergraduate degree, then in New York, where the company that employed me after I graduated sent me for six months. On Election Day, I proudly walked down to the post office and cast my ballot for you. As the exit polls started coming in, I was elated -- it looked like you certain to be the next Vice President of the United States.
As the night went on, my elation turned to despair. It became clear very early that some sort of shenanigans were occurring in Florida, where then-Governor George W. Bush's brother was governor and Republicans controlled the state's electoral machinery. I was certain that Florida's officials were certify the election for Bush even without the obviously needed recount, and I knew that the Supreme Court would not stop them -- indeed,
the wives of two of the justices had been volunteers for the Bush campaign, and a third justice apparently was horrified by the prospect that Gore might win and wanted to retire, but felt she could only do so with a Republican president to name her successor. My meager hopes were dashed when the Supreme Court refused to permit the necessary recount and Gore conceded the election.
Despite all that had happened, I was proud of your accomplishment and happy that you would be returning to the Senate. I figured that with the vast gulf between Republican and Democratic policy and ideology, you, as your party's recent vice presdential nominee, would become a standard bearer opposing the worst abuses of the Bush administration.
How naive I was!
Instead of opposing the abuses, you became an advocate for many of them. And in spite of that, I was still willing to forgive you. You voted for the Patriot Act, but so did every one of your Democratic colleagues save Senator Feingold, and so I can forgive you for that even as I disagree so strenuously. You refused to filibuster President Bush's nominees for the Supreme Court, Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Alito, and you even voted to confirm Chief Justice Roberts. Of course, many of your Democratic colleagues also voted to confirm Roberts, so I can forgive you for that. You voted to give war powers to President Bush so he could have his war in Iraq. I know you think this is the reason why so many liberal Democrats have opposed your bid for re-election, but I think you are mistaken -- even this most of us could forgive. After all, most of colleagues made the same mistake. And like you, many of your Democratic colleagues continue to support this war, and yet liberal Democrats like me still forgive them.
I have a harder time forgiving you for refusing to filibuster Justice Alito, especially now that he has turned out to be a force in strong opposition to our most sacred rights as codified in the Constitution. Yes, you did vote against his confirmation, but that was an empty vote. As soon as the filibuster failed, no one could doubt that Alito would be confirmed. And yet other Democratic senators did the same as you; four were even worse, voting to confirm Alito. And yet none of them are facing or are likely to face a primary challenge when they come up for re-election.
So why, then, are you facing a challenge?
You have said it is about your support for the war in Iraq, but I have already explained why I think you are mistaken. Here's what I think it is: you are horribly out of touch with your constituents. For all of your votes and positions I mentioned above, all of which I believe are opposed by a majority of your constituents, your constituents have flocked behind Ned Lamont's challenge to remind you that you serve at their pleasure. You have no right to your seat, but they have the right to replace you with whomever they see fit.
And for all of that, I think you still could have regained the respect and confidence of many of your constituents. If you were to win the primary, all you would need to do is tell Lamont's supporters you heard their protest and that you remember that you are their public servant and will try harder to reflect their positions. If you were to lose the primary, you would need to announce that you accept the judgment of your constituents and support Ned Lamont's campaign to become the next senator from the great state of Connecticut. You would then go off to a well-deserved retirement after a long career of service to this country. Either way, you still could have regained the respect and confidence of your constituents.
Sadly, I fear that is not possible anymore. I fear it is impossible because you will never regain my respect. And you will never regain my respect because you have allowed, even embraced, false accusations of anti-Semitism against Ned Lamont and his supporters. I have no doubt that there are some anti-Semites among Lamont's supporters -- try finding any group of hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people from the general population that doesn't have some anti-Semites among its members! But anti-Semitism is not the driving force behind your opposition.
Let me remind you what real anti-Semitism looks like. When I was growing up in a small town in rural Wisconsin where my family were the only Jews around, and classmates stabbed me on three separate occasions, shot at me twice, and harassed my three sisters, all because we were Jewish, that was anti-Semitism. When a family is forced to flee its hometown because the local school board promotes Christianity and they received death threats because they complained, that is anti-Semitism. When the Speaker of the Indiana House says that the concerns of Indiana Jews are irrelevant because Indiana Christians outnumber them 40-to-1, that is anti-Semitism. And when a man walks into a Jewish institution and starts shooting people because they are Jewish, that is anti-Semitism.
It is not anti-Semitism to oppose your candidacy. Indeed, many Jews are counted among Lamont's supporters. American Jews have always been at the forefront of supporting liberal candidates; indeed, 77% of our votes were for Senator Kerry in 2004, a figure nearly identical to the 79% who supported you and Al Gore in 2000.
I am sick of accusations made by anti-Semites that you vote the way you do in the Senate because you are Jewish; I know that is not the case. But I am equally disgusted when you allow and even embrace baseless accusations of anti-Semitism to be hurled at your opponent for political gain. Doing so reduces the credibility of real victims of anti-Semitism. I can never forgive that, Senator Lieberman. I don't know many Jews who could.