... AND HIS PARTY'S SHAMEFUL SILENCE

Sen. Lieberman's selection, as noted above, may be what Al Gore needs to protect himself from lingering political fallout from the scandal that led to President Clinton's impeachment. After all, didn't Lieberman take the lead among Democrats in publicly berating the president over l'affaire Lewinsky?

But while Lieberman was indeed way ahead of his own party in that regard, it's also true that he ended up as Lonesome Joe:   Few were the Democrats who followed his lead.

Indeed, many of those who are now applauding the Connecticut senator's selection were silent when Lieberman delivered his memorable speech on the Senate floor back on Sept. 3, 1998.

"The president's relationship with Ms. Lewinsky," said Lieberman, "compromised his moral authority at a time when Americans of every political persuasion agree that the decline of the family is one of the most pressing problems we are facing."

In a sorrowful, yet compassionate, tone, Lieberman insisted that a president must be held to a higher standard: "The consequences of his misbehavior, even private misbehavior, are much greater than those of an average citizen."

Likewise, Democratic ears remained deaf to his insistence that Clinton's actions, while not impeachable, deserved a public congressional rebuke so that he would "suffer, at the very least, public embarrassment and reproach" for his "sexual misconduct and his deliberate efforts to deceive the American people."

Lieberman demanded a resolution of censure as a way of ensuring that Congress provide "a strong statement that makes clear to ourselves and posterity that we are a nation that understands the difference between right and wrong, truth and falsehood."

True, Republicans precluded any chance of a censure resolution by insisting on carrying the impeachment process through to acquittal. But most Democrats were dumb as stones regarding meaningful sanctions against Clinton.

Joe Lieberman today is winning deserved praise. It's too bad those in his own party weren't cheering quite as loudly two years ago,
when he set an example they should have followed.

                                                                                           
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