The Lieberman -- Weicker Race of 1988 [View All]

[Sharm]

I looked up Joseph Lieberman and Weicker in google (and then findarticles.com) to see what the press was saying about the 1988 election battle between a liberal-oid Republican and a conservat-oid Democrat. What I found were, mostly, several articles from the National Review.

The magazine hated Weicker -- about as much as we (for the most part) can't stand Joseph Lieberman.

http://www.findarticles.com/p/search?qt=Joseph+Lieberman+Weicker&tb=art&qf=free

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1282/is_n20_v40/ai_6701986
In favour of Joseph Lieberman.

He is a Democrat who: Applauded the use of military force in Grenada. Applauded the anti-terrorist strike in Libya. Applauded the deployment of naval forces to keep open the sea channel in the Persian Gulf All these positions, Republican Senator Weicker opposed.

Lieberman favors a moment of silence in the public schools; and-as he put it, "in order"-he believes in God, in love of country, and in the work ethic. By contrast, Lowell Weicker prays every day only that there shall never be prayers said at school.

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On abortion (Lowell Weicker will be satisfied only when the Federal Government provides a bonus to any woman who aborts her child), Lieberman looks and sounds genuinely distressed by the subject. It is, he says, a profound moral question. He opposes abortion. But he would not outlaw it. And then he points out that Roe v. Wade, which turned the country's laws around on the subject of abortion, recognized the right of the state at some point during pregnancy to extend protection to human life. He was saying, in effect, that although it developed under Roe v. Wade that anyone can get an abortion at any time, in fact, the Supreme Court only meant to license it for early in the pregnancy.

LIEBERMAN spoke with that degree of ideological modesty which highlights the imperial obnoxiousness of the Republican for whose seat he is competing. If politics is heavily a matter of character, as we all are urged to believe in the matter of Dan Quayle, then many independents, and even some Republicans, are going to look at the two alternative candidates and say: Better a Democratic Lieberman, than a Republican Weicker.

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1282/is_n17_v40/ai_6600582

William Buckley's oh-so-witty endorsement of Joseph Lieberman.

Q. So that it is primarily the retirement of Weicker rather than the election of Lieberman that you wish? A. You can't have the one without the other. As for Joe Lieberman, he is a moderate Democrat, and it is always possible that he will progress in the right direction. There is no such hope for Lowell Weicker.

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1282/is_n20_v40/ai_6701944

In a public debate with Democratic opponent Attorney General Joe Lieberman last week, Weicker attacked the Pledge of Allegiance. "Ronald Reagan tried to take us down a lot of wrong paths . . . and only one man stood up." (He meant Lowell Weicker.) Asked about Buckpac (Buckleys for Lieberman), Lieberman said, "Buckley and tens of thousands of others can't stand you for your political grandstanding."

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1282/is_n24_v40/ai_6859622

Upon the election of Joseph Lieberman:

Hmm. Suppose that, on swearing-in day in January at the Senate, Mr. Lieberman were to announce that, on mature reflection, he had decided to become a Republican?

Ironic, it is.