Connecticut Welcomes Lieberman Home

Joseph I. Lieberman was given a warm welcome home Monday as he stopped at Connecticut diners to thank voters for reelecting him to the Senate while he ran as Al Gore’s running mate.

At the Stamford Diner, retired FBI agent Jim Trower said he didn’t back the Democratic presidential ticket but did vote for Lieberman for Senate.

“I told him that I thought he was very smart not to give up his day job,” Trower said. “He said he thought so too.”

Lieberman, the first Jew to run for national office on a major party ticket, campaigned in Connecticut only one day but easily won a third Senate term by defeating Waterbury Mayor Philip Giordano.

Lieberman quipped that he can now do what very few politicians ever accomplish: thank voters for “voting for me twice in one year, legally.”

A Gore victory would have opened the door for GOP Gov. John Rowland to name a Republican to replace Lieberman in the Senate.

Lieberman said that after five weeks of Florida recounts and court battles, he had only one regret about the presidential race: the ending.

“I suppose it’s true that defeat is never easy to take. It’s disappointing. It hurts,” he said.

At the restaurant in Stamford, the city where Lieberman grew up and where his 86-year-old mother still lives, the diner employees broke into applause when he walked in. They also hung a blue-and-white banner that read: “2004.”

“It’s great to be home,” he said.

Lieberman told reporters that he hopes his recent political celebrity brings “extra clout” when he returns to the Senate next month.

“If anything, I hope after the national run to return to the Senate with some extra clout that I certainly intend to use for the benefit of the people of my beloved state,” Lieberman said.

The senator’s two-day, six-city “thank-you” tour of Connecticut is his first state appearance since Gore conceded the election last week.

Asked by a reporter whether he might run for president or vice president in 2004, Lieberman said: “Strangely, as we all know, the 2000 election just ended about four or five days ago, after the 35-day-long count, so I’m getting perspective on that and focused on returning to the U.S. Senate in January, and I’m going to let the future for now take care of itself.”