Posted on 05/25/2011 6:24:43 PM PDT by rabscuttle385
As Joe Lieberman winds down his two-decade career in the Senate, the onetime Democratic vice presidential nominee is reaching out to an unlikely group to help seal his political legacy: freshman Republicans.
Behind the scenes and in front of the cameras, the retiring foreign policy hawk is grooming, mentoring and partnering with a handful of GOP freshmen to ensure that, long after he’s left the Senate, his vision for America’s role abroad survives.
Reaching across the aisle is nothing new for Lieberman, who stood on the stage at the 2008 Republican National Convention and endorsed John McCain, making his choice of mentees — including Sens. Kelly Ayotte, Mark Kirk and Marco Rubio — a fresh reminder of how the former Democratic stalwart managed to find himself a near pariah among liberals.
At a recent news conference, Lieberman stood shoulder to shoulder with Ayotte (R-N.H.), promoting legislation that would block the Obama administration’s efforts to shutter the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, terrorist detention center.
He and Kirk (R-Ill.) this month launched their U.S.-China Working Group, a forum for senators and Chinese officials to discuss such prickly matters as North Korea’s nuclear program.
When Natan Sharansky, the Russian-Jewish political prisoner and human rights activist, paid a visit to Lieberman’s office in March, the devout Jewish senator asked longtime Israel defenders, including McCain (R-Ariz.) and Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), to drop by. But he also invited Rubio, another staunch Israel backer, to the intimate meeting.
“There’s no question that, for me, it’s very reassuring to see people coming in who are in tune with the kind of foreign policy that’s based on human rights, democracy promotion, muscular foreign policy and being willing to use our military strength when we’ve had to protect our security and our freedom,” Lieberman, a Connecticut independent, told POLITICO.
“Inevitably, as I think about leaving, you like to feel that the kinds of ideas I’ve fought for will be carried on. Some of these people will — Rubio, Kirk and Kelly Ayotte.”
It might be an unusual path for a senior member of the Democratic Caucus who came just hundreds of votes shy of becoming Al Gore’s vice president in 2000. But Lieberman’s outreach to Republican freshmen reinforces the reputation he’s created since the Sept. 11 attacks nearly a decade ago: a neo-conservative who’s never been afraid to cross party lines.
“Presidents, congressmen and senators all worry about their legacy, and he’s thinking of his place in history as a person who was willing to reach out to both sides. He wants his legacy to be a strong, serious, realistic foreign policy,” said Robert Guttman, founder and director of Johns Hopkins University’s Center on Politics and Foreign Relations, who hosted Lieberman at his school last year.
“Now that he has a short time left in the Senate, he’s trying to make his influence known [with these freshmen].”
Lieberman caucuses with Democrats but has identified himself as an independent since 2006, when he lost to Iraq war critic Ned Lamont in the Democratic primary and later beat him as a third-party candidate in the general election. In the 2008 presidential race, Lieberman endorsed and campaigned for his longtime friend, McCain, over Barack Obama, infuriating Democrats.
He got a reprieve from liberal critics last December when he successfully championed the repeal of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy that banned gays from the military. But a month later, facing sagging poll numbers, Lieberman opted to retire rather than run for a fifth term in 2012.
Liberals seem all too happy to see him go. They still haven’t forgiven him for his full-throated defense of the Iraq war and his threats to filibuster the health care bill if it contained the government-run insurance program known as the public option.
“He claims to be a very moral and religious person, but he voted for unnecessary wars that killed thousands of people and opposed the public option that likely could have saved thousands upon millions of lives,” said Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, which ran ads against Lieberman over his position on the public option. Green also helped lead the anti-war group MoveOn.org’s efforts to defeat him during the 2006 election.
“He will be on the fringes of history,” Green added. “History will not look back kindly on Joe Lieberman.”
But with a little more than a year and a half left in his term, Lieberman said he’s taking full advantage of his time in the Senate.
“I’m trying to be as constructive and productive as I can, and to me, that’s always meant forming alliances,” he said.
For the trio of freshman senators, Lieberman has served as something of a mentor. For Ayotte, Lieberman literally is her mentor, part of a Senate program that pairs freshmen with a senior member of the other party.
When Ayotte introduced legislation this month to permanently keep the Guantanamo Bay facility open and ban the construction of terrorist detention centers in the U.S., Lieberman quickly signed on and joined her and close ally Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) at a news conference. Having the endorsement of Lieberman, the Senate Homeland Security Committee chairman who was instrumental in the creation of the Homeland Security Department in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, gave instant credibility and bipartisan backing to the freshman’s first legislative outing.
“It’s a testament to who he is,” said Ayotte, who has bonded with Lieberman over their common backgrounds as former state attorneys general. “He’s certainly someone who’s been a strong, independent voice here; and particularly on national security issues, he recognizes those issues go beyond parties.”
Being invited to the Sharansky meeting was a tiny gesture that had a profound impact on Rubio.
The son of Cuban exiles, Rubio sat enraptured as he listened to Sharansky describe how he and other prisoners in the Siberian Gulag rejoiced when President Ronald Reagan denounced the Soviet Union as “an evil empire,” a phrase Sharansky previously described as “one of the most important, freedom-affirming declarations.”
“There is a lesson to be applied in modern times when you look at what is happening throughout the Middle East,” Rubio told POLITICO. “Americans and America should never underestimate our moral authority when we’re willing to use it. A statement from the United States that we’re on the side of the people, that we’re on the side of their aspirations for freedom, is a powerful thing. … And that meeting really brought that home to me.”
In the coming days, Lieberman and Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) will roll out Iran sanctions legislation that includes language from a proposal by Kirk. The Illinois Republican became close with Lieberman while serving in the House, traveling with him in 2006 on one of McCain’s “Holidays in Hell” trips to Kabul, Baghdad and Ramallah.
Lieberman notes that it’s not just Republicans he’s worked with on foreign policy matters. Since 2009, he and first-term Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) pushed legislation that would call for tougher sanctions on Iran and expanded freedoms for the Iranian people. And Lieberman joined both Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) and Rubio in sponsoring a resolution calling for Obama to impose sanctions targeting Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad for carrying out violent crackdowns against protesters in his country.
But Lieberman, 69, says the Democratic Party today has departed from the robust foreign policy it espoused during the John F. Kennedy administration.
“It’s true that the general foreign policy approach I’ve taken has more allies in the Republican Party than in the Democratic Party,” Lieberman said. “I hope that changes as time goes on.”
After reading the article, I believe the Politico headline overstates the “Mentor” angle. What the article describes is simply “coalition building” around shared interests — a great and worthy political skill. When Lieberman stands for a strong foreign policy and in support of Israel, he stands with me. And I compromise nothing by our agreement.
Why throw in the misleading title about raising more RINOs?
Lieberman has always been shown to be on the right side of foreign policy issues. If conservatives in the Senate see that and want to work with him on that subject in which they share a common interest, what is wrong with that?
You know what you get with Kirk and Ayotte. They may swing RINO, but not on this issue.
Also, Marco Rubio is not a RINO no matter how many times people here try to label him that or twist his comments on the AZ bill to mean something it didn’t.
A bankrupt country?
Because there are plenty of new RINOs in the Senate and LIEberman is mentoring them to be "bipartisan" and support his agenda.
>> Lieberman has always been shown to be on the right side of foreign policy issues. If conservatives in the Senate see that and want to work with him on that subject in which they share a common interest, what is wrong with that? <<
LIEberman always been shown to be on the wrong side of the other 95% of issues. The idea that he's "with us when it counts" or is a Democrat with a "coincince" has been proven wrong time and time again, like when this scumbag provided the pivotal support needed to ram Obamacare down our throats. The freepers who supported Al Gore's running mate and spent precious money and time to help re-elect that commie instead of decent conservatives (there were three incumbent conservative Republicans up for re-election the same year who lost by less than 1%) are responsible for Harry Reid and the RATs running the Senate today. If they had simply focused all their energy on re-electing decent conservatives instead of LIEberman, Republicans would have held the majority.
>> You know what you get with Kirk and Ayotte. They may swing RINO, but not on this issue. <<
The jury is out on Ayotte. I've heard her described as everything from staunch tea party conservative to worthless RINO so I'm taking a wait and see approach and watching her voting record to draw a conclusion. If she's being mentored by LIEberman, it's not a good sign.
As for Kirk, he swings RINO on EVERY issue, including his much vaulted "pro-military" record. This scumbag actually voted AGAINST the successful troop surge in Iraq and to have gays serve opening in the military. There isn't a single issue where Kirk isn't willing to sell us out. This guy would drive over his own grandmother if would boost his clout with the beltway crowd. It's amusing how freepers will claim Lindsey Graham is worse than a RAT but then us we "had to" elect Kirk. They now have someone 10X worse than the Senators they couldn't stand.
>> Also, Marco Rubio is not a RINO no matter how many times people here try to label him that or twist his comments on the AZ bill to mean something it didn’t. <<
Marco Rubio was far preferable to Charlie Crist and seems to be a good conservative thus far, but the jury is out on him as well. There were some lunatic freepers calling him "RINO Rubio", but nobody on this thread has called him that. In any case, it doesn't help that the most hardcore pro-Rubio freepers who vouched for him as Mr. Conservative were the same ones who told us Mel Martinez was the "true conservative" in the GOP primary six years earlier. I think Rubio will probably turn out to be pretty good, but again, the jury is out and it's not a good sign if he's being "mentored" by LIEberman.
The efforts to put "sanctions" on Iran and claim that will force them to behave themselves is another failed liberal policy, and one that has NEVER proven successful. Remember all the lefties who claimed that "sanctions" against Iraq would get them out of Kuwait and "resolve the situation peacefully"? How'd that work out?
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