Editing Joe Lieberman (section)

===Tenure===
Lieberman was first elected to the [[United States Senate]] as a Democrat in the [[United States Senate election, 1988|1988 election]], defeating liberal Republican [[Lowell Weicker]] by a margin of 10,000 votes.<ref name="nyt-weicker-defeat">{{cite news |last1=Ravo |first1=Nick |title=The Elections: Connecticut; Weicker Concedes To Lieberman in Close Race |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/11/10/nyregion/the-elections-connecticut-weicker-concedes-to-lieberman-in-close-race.html |access-date=March 29, 2024 |work=The New York Times |date=November 10, 1988 |archive-date=March 29, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240329154010/https://www.nytimes.com/1988/11/10/nyregion/the-elections-connecticut-weicker-concedes-to-lieberman-in-close-race.html |url-status=live }}</ref> He scored the nation's biggest political upset that year,<ref name="ncr-retirement">{{cite news |last1=Gallagher |first1=Tom |title=U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman's farewell address |url=https://www.ncronline.org/blogs/ncr-today/us-sen-joe-liebermans-farewell-address |access-date=March 29, 2024 |work=National Catholic Reporter |date=December 19, 2012 |language=en |archive-date=December 4, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221204112439/https://www.ncronline.org/blogs/ncr-today/us-sen-joe-liebermans-farewell-address |url-status=live }}</ref> after being backed by a coalition of Democrats and unaffiliated voters with support from conservative [[Republican Party (United States)|Republicans]], most notably including ''[[National Review]]'' founder and ''[[Firing Line (TV series)|Firing Line]]'' host [[William F. Buckley Jr.]] and his brother, former New York Senator [[James L. Buckley]],<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/08/16/nyregion/buckleys-are-backing-a-democrat.html|title=Buckleys Are Backing A Democrat?|date=August 16, 1988|work=[[The New York Times]]|access-date=February 9, 2017|archive-date=April 17, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190417005235/https://www.nytimes.com/1988/08/16/nyregion/buckleys-are-backing-a-democrat.html|url-status=live}}</ref> who were disappointed in three-term Republican incumbent Weicker's liberal voting record and personal style. During the campaign, he received support from Connecticut's [[Cuban Americans|Cuban American]] community, which was unhappy with Weicker. Thereafter, Lieberman remained firmly anti-Castro.<ref name=Toobin>Toobin, Jeffrey. [https://web.archive.org/web/20060319050852/http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/021216fa_fact Joe Lieberman looks hopefully toward the White House.] ''[[The New Yorker]]'' December 16, 2002.</ref>

Shortly after his first election to the Senate, Lieberman was approached by [[George J. Mitchell]], the incoming [[Majority Leader]] who advised him, "Pick out two or three areas that you're really interested in and learn them so that your colleagues know what you're talking about&nbsp;... You're going to have more influence even as a freshman than you think because you know there's hundreds of issues and inevitably we rely on each other."<ref name="conversationswithbillkristol.org">{{cite web|url=http://conversationswithbillkristol.org/video/joe-lieberman/|title=Joe Lieberman on Conversations with Bill Kristol|access-date=March 28, 2016|archive-date=March 24, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160324153806/http://conversationswithbillkristol.org/video/joe-lieberman/|url-status=live}}</ref> Recalling the conversation, Lieberman said "that was true when I first came in, although you could see partisanship beginning to eat away at that. But at the end of my 24 years, it was really so partisan that it was hard to make the combinations to get to 60 votes to break a filibuster to get things done."<ref name="conversationswithbillkristol.org"/>

Lieberman's [[1993–94 United States Senate hearings on video games|initiatives against violence in video games]] are considered the chief impetus behind the establishment of an industry-wide [[video game rating system]] during the early 1990s.<ref>{{cite journal|title=75 Power Players: The Watcher|journal=[[Next Generation (magazine)|Next Generation]]|issue=11|publisher=[[Imagine Media]]|date=November 1995|page=67}}</ref>

[[File:Bill Clinton and officials on Air Force One.jpg|thumb|300px|Lieberman (second from the left) and Senate colleagues with President [[Bill Clinton]] and his national security team on [[Air Force One]] to [[Bosnia]] in 1997]]

In 1994, Lieberman made history by winning by the largest landslide ever in a Connecticut Senate race, drawing 67 percent of the vote and beating his opponent by more than 350,000 votes.<ref name="nyt-obit" />  Lieberman then served as chair of the [[Democratic Leadership Council]] from 1995 to 2001.<ref name="dlc-lieberman">{{cite news |last1=Sullivan |first1=Michael Gene |title=Democratic Leadership Council Concerned as Democrats Seem Headed Toward Victory |url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/democratic-leadership-cou_b_91340 |access-date=March 29, 2024 |work=HuffPost |publisher=BuzzFeed |date=March 13, 2008 |language=en |archive-date=March 29, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240329155947/https://www.huffpost.com/entry/democratic-leadership-cou_b_91340 |url-status=live }}</ref> In 1998, Lieberman was the first prominent Democrat to publicly challenge Clinton for the judgment exercised in his [[Lewinsky scandal|affair]] with [[Monica Lewinsky]];<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20030920201157/http://www.australianpolitics.com/usa/clinton/impeachment/lieberman.shtml Senator Joe Lieberman Attacks Clinton.] AustralianPolitics.com September 3, 1998. Retrieved October 10, 2006.</ref> however, he voted against removing Clinton from office by [[impeachment]].<ref name="fox61-obit">{{cite news |last1=Stewart |first1=Doug |title=Joe Lieberman dies at age 82, his family says |url=https://www.fox61.com/article/news/local/joe-lieberman-a-look-back-at-his-career/520-13fedea0-ad72-4b96-9583-28093dd636bc |access-date=March 29, 2024 |work=FOX61 |publisher=WTIC-TV |date=March 27, 2024 |archive-date=March 29, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240329234405/https://www.fox61.com/article/news/local/joe-lieberman-a-look-back-at-his-career/520-13fedea0-ad72-4b96-9583-28093dd636bc |url-status=live }}</ref> Of his criticism of [[Bill Clinton]], Lieberman said in 2014:

<blockquote>It was a very hard thing for me to do because I liked him but I really felt what he did was awful and that unless I felt myself if I didn't say something, I'd be a [[hypocrite]]. I also felt that if somebody who was supportive of him didn't say something, it would not be good. And so it got a lot of attention. I got a call from [[Erskine Bowles]] who was [[White House Chief of Staff|Chief of Staff]] about three or four days later saying that he was going to express an opinion which wasn't universally held at the [[White House]]&nbsp;– he thought I helped the president by bursting the boil, that was the metaphor he used. The following Sunday morning, I'm at home and the phone rings, it's the White House. And it's now about a week and a couple of days since I made the speech. The president says, it was the president, "I just want you to know that there's nothing you said in that speech that I don't agree with. And I want you to know that I'm working on it." And we talked for about forty-five minutes. It was amazing.<ref name="conversationswithbillkristol.org"/></blockquote>

In 2000, Lieberman was [[2000 United States Senate election in Connecticut|elected]] to a third Senate term, defeating the Republican candidate, [[Philip Giordano]].<ref name="cnn-2000-senate">{{cite news |title=Lieberman wins Senate race |url=https://www.cnn.com/2000/ALLPOLITICS/stories/11/07/senate.connecticut/ |access-date=March 29, 2024 |publisher=CNN |date=November 8, 2000 |archive-date=September 6, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230906081809/http://www.cnn.com/2000/ALLPOLITICS/stories/11/07/senate.connecticut/ |url-status=live }}</ref>