Local Jewish Republicans said the addition of Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman — an observant Jew — as Vice President’s Al Gore’s running mate would not sway their own opinions nor have much impact on the Jewish vote.
“I hope most Jewish Republicans feel it’s a plus that there’s a Jew running, but I’m not sure that it will have a significant effect on how the voting is going to go,” said David Steirman, a member of the San Mateo County Republican Party Central Committee.
“I think both parties made choices of experienced public servants, which is a credit to both parties,” he added.
Larry Goldberg of Tiburon, an adviser for Jewish affairs in Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan’s presidential campaigns, said if he were working for the George W. Bush campaign, he would have a difficult time attacking Lieberman.
Widely respected by both parties, the Democratic vice presidential designee has been called “the conscience of the Senate” for, among other things, his outspoken condemnation of President Clinton’s behavior in the Monica Lewinsky affair.
“I’m glad I don’t have the responsibility of running one of the campaigns now. They will have a hard time criticizing him,” said Goldberg. “Because he’s Jewish, there’s a protective mantle that will be there initially. They will soft-pedal what would be the usual criticism.”
When it comes to Lieberman’s record, however, Goldberg said it would speak for itself, and the Republicans would find plenty to criticize.
But Michael Boskin, a professor of economics at Stanford University who is also a Republican, said that many of Lieberman’s positions were much closer to those of Bush than to Gore.
That adds an extra element of excitement to the race, he said.
“Social Security reform, missile reform, tort reform, parental notification on abortion, affirmative action, school choice. On all these issues, Joe Lieberman is closer to Bush than to Gore,” Boskin said. “I think a large part of the reason he has so much respect is for his positions on these issues.”
National Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer agreed with Boskin: “Al Gore has chosen a man whose positions are more similar to Gov. Bush’s than to his own.”
Lieberman answered those charges Tuesday when he was officially introduced as Gore’s running mate.
Republicans “responded to the news that Al Gore had picked me by saying that George Bush and I think alike,” Lieberman said. “With all due respect, I think that’s like saying that the veterinarian and the taxidermist are in the same business because either way you get your dog back.”
William J. Lowenberg, a San Francisco Jewish activist and Republican, called the senator “a most honorable man.”
“He has always supported a number of causes I’m interested in,” added Lowenberg.
One Republican Jewish activist, Koret Foundation President Tad Taube, wondered whether placing such emphasis on Lieberman’s Jewishness was counterproductive.
“Isn’t it a shame that people are making such a thing over the fact that he’s Jewish?” Taube asked. Jews, he added, “occupy every walk of life; there are two Jews on the Supreme Court, and many in government on all levels.”
While he called Lieberman “a wonderful human being,” Taube said the presence of the Connecticut senator merely “improves a bad ticket” — and would not sway Republican Jewish voters away from the Bush ticket.
“I doubt if Jewish Republicans will change their minds,” agreed Murray Friedman, an American Jewish historian who heads the American Jewish Committee office in Philadelphia.
The real meaning of Lieberman’s selection, Friedman said, is that it shows Jews are moving toward the right, though he admitted that Gore may pick up 1 or 2 percent more of the Jewish vote now that he has an Orthodox Jew at his side.
Gore is expected to win around 80 percent of the Jewish vote.
Friedman said that ultimately Jewish voters will go to the polls focused on the choice for president, not vice president.
Nevertheless, some of Lieberman’s policy stances will most likely appeal to Jewish Republicans.
Lieberman has advocated pilot programs in which the federal government would provide parents with vouchers for tuition at private or parochial schools. He also has hinted at privatizing Social Security, led a fight against violence in the entertainment industry and championed a stronger national defense.
In a statement, the Republican Jewish Coalition also contrasted Lieberman’s positions with Gore’s. The RJC questioned what Lieberman was doing in the “party of Al Sharpton, the party that refuses to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, the party that opposes parental choice in education.”
Jewish Republicans are bursting with pride that a fellow Jew got the call, said Matt Brooks, RJC executive director. “But that doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to vote for him.”
Meanwhile, another San Francisco Jewish activist, independent George Frankenstein, criticized Gore for choosing Lieberman, worrying that having a Jew at such a high level could provoke an anti-Semitic backlash.
“I think it’s a major mistake on Gore’s part,” he said. “It brings nothing to the table in terms of the Jewish vote, which is 80 percent already.”
Furthermore, he said, “I’m not anxious to have a Jewish president or vice president because there are controversial decisions to be made.” People, in Frankenstein’s view, would therefore always find reasons to blame decisions they didn’t like on the Jews.
While many analysts said Gore chose to go with a religious man like himself, Frankenstein questioned how the two men of such disparate faiths would see eye to eye.
If Gore should win, Frankenstein said, “You have an Orthodox Jewish vice president, talking to a president that says WWJD,” — meaning “What Would Jesus Do?” — a phrase some Christians ask themselves to help guide their behavior. “How does that work itself?”
Rabbi Michael Lerner, editor of the S.F.-based Tikkun magazine, was one Democrat who publicly criticized Gore’s choice. Lerner said that a Gore-Lieberman ticket was neither good for America nor good for the Jews. While he recognized that this was “a moment to celebrate in American Jewish history,” Lerner said Jews should not overlook the fact that some of Lieberman’s positions were not in synch with those of the Jewish community.
“Although Lieberman represents the values of the Jewish establishment and its never-criticize-Israel perspective, he doesn’t represent the values of most American Jews, and certainly not Bay Area Jews, whose values, in my view, are more consistent with the Torah,” Lerner said.
Gore’s choice of a centrist like Lieberman did not bode well for the two-party system, and in fact brought both parties closer to the same “elitist” agenda, Lerner contended.
While Lieberman’s morality was being made an example of, Lerner said that morality was much wider ranging than issues of whom one is sleeping with.
“By his narrowing of morality to sexual morality, he’s avoiding key Torah issues, about how you treat the stranger, and how you treat the oppressed,” said Lerner. He added that Lieberman has had no role in shaping a society in which all people are recognized as created in the image of God.
“This guy is no moral leader on any of those issues.”