Q&A with… Senator Joseph I. Lieberman
“I’m an optimist about America because our history shows that we have the ability to pull together and tackle the big challenges that our country has faced.”
Joe and Hadassah Lieberman during the 2000 presidential campaign
By Judie Jacobson
Just days before Rosh Hashanah, as Joe Lieberman prepared to wrap up his tenure as the senator from Connecticut, the Ledger spoke with him about his 24-year career on Capitol Hill – its triumphs and challenges.
Q: What are your priorities for the remainder of your time in the Senate – what would you like to accomplish?
A: I’d have to say that my own priority is — or should be – Congress’ priority and the country’s priority; that is, to do something about the economy and the national debt. The two go together. In the lame duck session following the election we could reach a bipartisan agreement to reduce the debt. It would be the best thing we could do for the economy because it would give businesses in particular the confidence to invest and that will create jobs. So that’s the overall priority. I think we have a chance to accomplish that — but I wouldn’t say it’s more than 50/50.
I also have two personal priorities that both come of the committee that I’m privileged to chair. One is to adopt legislation that will protect Americans from cyber attack and cyber theft, which is a clear and present danger. Unfortunately, because of partisan differences and ideological rigidity we are having more trouble doing this then we should have. Normally this would be a bipartisan proposal, but a filibuster stopped us from taking up the bill before we left Washington early in August. We’ve been working on it over the break and hopefully we’ll have another chance to make a run at it when we get back. The second priority has to do with the U.S. Postal Service, which happens to come under my committee. The Postal Service is losing between $25 and $30 million a day; we passed a bill in the Senate and we think we’ll get the Postal Service back on the road to a balanced budget, but the House has not acted yet so we’re putting pressure on them to act, hopefully in September or right after the election, because this is something we really have to do. The Postal Service runs the risk of literally going bankrupt and we can’t let that happen — that would be a real body blow for our economy. It would put hundreds of thousands more people out of work.
So as I wind up, those are my big priorities. And I’m working hard. Obviously, I’ve made a decision not to run again…and I’ve also made a decision to stay out of campaigns this year – I’ve had enough of partisan campaign conflict that I thought I’d just stay out of it this year and end my career without more partisan conflict. Obviously, the advantage of that is that it allows me to focus on trying to get some of these things accomplished in the Senate before I leave office early next January.
Q: You mentioned the partisanship in Congress. Those of us looking in from the outside tend to believe that Congress has been immobilized by partisanship. Is there any hope the Congress will overcome the partisanship?
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