Senator Joe Lieberman, 68, announced on Wednesday that he would not seek re-election in 2012.
“The reason I have decided not to run for re-election in 2012 is best expressed in the wise words from Ecclesiastes: ‘To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under Heaven,’” the former Democratic vice presidential candidate said at a press conference. “At the end of this term, I will have served 24 years in the U.S. Senate and 40 years in elective office. For me, it is time for another season and another purpose under Heaven.”
Lieberman left the Democratic Party and became an independent after losing to anti-war primary challenger Ned Lamont in 2006. A close friend of Sen. John McCain, Lieberman was rumored to be the Arizona Republican’s first choice as running mate in 2008.
“I have not always fit comfortably into conventional political boxes—Democrat or Republican, liberal or conservative. I have always thought that my first responsibility is not to serve a political party but to serve my constituents, my state, and my country, and then to work across party lines to make sure good things get done for them,” Lieberman said. “Whatever the partisan or policy differences that divide us, they are much less important than the shared values and dreams that unite us and that require us to work together to make progress for all. To me, that is what public service and leadership is all about.”
Had Lieberman decided to run next year he would have likely faced stiff opposition from both major parties. With his approval rating sliding, at least one poll suggested that the Homeland Security Committee chairman was likely to lose the race by a landslide margin. Lieberman, known for his hawkish foreign policy views as well as his liberal stands on hot-button social issues like abortion and gay rights, has received praise and criticism from both sides of the political spectrum during his tenure in Congress. He famously denounced Bill Clinton during the president’s 1998 impeachment trial, and became an outspoken supporter of the Iraq War under President George W. Bush. More recently, Lieberman was a leader of the ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ repeal effort in the Senate.
Although his career in the Senate is coming to an end, Lieberman said that he intended to remain active in the political process. “I do not intend today to be the end of my career in public service,” he said. “Having made this decision not to run enables me to spend the next two years in the Senate devoting the full measure of my energy and attention to getting things done for Connecticut and for our country.”
