Choosing A US Senator

If George W. Bush is elected to the Presidency of the United States, as we have recommended, Joseph I. Lieberman will be free from the obligations of his vice presidential candidacy to return to the US Senate to represent the people of Connecticut. We hope the 2000 election does not cost us the services of a man who is recognized by political leaders on both sides of the aisle as a first-rate senator.

To his credit, Mr Lieberman’s opponent in the US Senate race in Connecticut, Republican Waterbury Mayor Phillip A. Giordano, has tried to mount a credible campaign against an ever-popular and, for this fall, ever-absent, incumbent. He has been running very hard on his good record in Waterbury, where he has balanced the budget, reformed the city’s school system, and put more cops on the streets. But frankly, he has been chasing a spotlight that has been elsewhere – on Sen Lieberman.

The reason the spotlight has shone so brightly on Joe Lieberman this year is that he managed to transform a moribund Gore 2000 campaign by bringing a measure of integrity, intelligence, and good humor to an election effort that was in dire need of all three. Sen Lieberman now occupies a key position on the national political stage. He is a good man, a centrist, and a consensus-builder in an environment where men and women of good character who are willing to work together are hard to come by. He deserves a place on that stage, not as vice president, but as a veteran US Senator from Connecticut.

The people of Connecticut have consistently shown their support for Joseph I. Lieberman over the past 25 years, endorsing his work in the State Senate, as state attorney general, and as US senator. We urge voters to continue that support by returning him to the US Senate for another six years.