Washington – In his eulogy for his close friend John McCain, Joe Lieberman recalled McCain’s accommodation of Lieberman’s Jewish observance, and his love of Jerusalem.
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Lieberman, the former senator from Connecticut, recalled traveling around the world with McCain, the Arizona Republican senator who died last week, together with Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.; the three focused on foreign policy, particularly in the Middle East.
Lieberman, speaking Saturday at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., recalled McCain suffering through Shabbat elevators in Israel, walking long distances with him on Shabbat, and forgoing Friday night festivities overseas to share a quiet meal with Lieberman — what McCain called a “Shalom Shabbat.”
McCain, Lieberman said, “is deriving pleasure from the fact that his funeral is on a Saturday and I had to walk here,” prompting laughter.
Lieberman, who was a Democrat and then in his last term, from 2007-2013, an Independent, recalled McCain in 2008 asking him to be his running mate. Lieberman said it was unrealistic because he remained a registered Democrat; McCain rejoined that that was the point.
Lieberman recalled a year ago when McCain with his vote scuttled a bid by Republicans to roll back health care reforms passed by President Barack Obama. Lieberman noted that McCain was reviled for that vote by Republicans.
“His vote was not really against that bill, but against the mindless partisanship that has taken control of both of our political parties,” Lieberman said.
The week of mourning for McCain has become an extended rebuke of President Donald Trump, who despised McCain — particularly for frustrating the killing of Obamacare. McCain, in turn, reviled Trump for his divisive rhetoric and his attacks on minorities.
In arranging his own funeral before his death from brain cancer, McCain asked that his two rivals in presidential contests, President Barack Obama in 2008 and President George W. Bush in 2000, eulogize him, but pointedly did not invite Trump.
All the eulogies included references, some subtle, some not so subtle, to the contrast between McCain and Trump.
The most pointed was by McCain’s daughter, Meghan. “The America of John McCain has no need to be made great again because America was always great,” she said, referring to Trump’s signature campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again.”
Lieberman wrapped up his eulogy, recalling how much he and McCain enjoyed talking about faith whenever they visited Jerusalem, a city McCain loved. They would sit in a hotel balcony looking over the city, and when Lieberman entered the private sector, McCain urged him to buy an apartment in Jerusalem with a view, and to reserve a room for him.
Lieberman said he regretted that he was unable to do so before McCain died, but that he knew that McCain was now in a more perfect Jerusalem.
“May angels sing you to your eternal home,” Lieberman said.
McCain will be buried Sunday in Annapolis, where he graduated the Naval Academy before joining the war effort in Vietnam. The Vietnamese captured and imprisoned McCain for more than five years.
Senator Lieberman, u dont belong to eulogizena goy on Shabat
Lieberman was always a class act. Anyone know how he worked out using the microphone on Shabbos, or whose psak he relied upon?
So 2 “shomer shabbos” jews went to a church on shabbos, 10 days before rh and 1 spoke into a Mic to honor a man who was a liberal
that’s why I couldn’t vote for liberman as a vice president. a jew as a president?
nish bei mir, motchka
Senator Lieberman has a daughter who looks frumer than a lot of us. I can only hope to have grandchildren who look like his! Bottom line: He must have done something right!
To #8 - I am not condoning the torture which was meted out to not only McCain, but to the majority of the American flyers who were shot down over Vietnam. However, one must look at what occurred, from the viewpoint of the Vietnamese. The USA was the aggressor in that air war against Vietnam. Vietnam had done nothing hostile to the USA. The so-called  220;Gulf of Tonkin attack 221; in 1964 never even occurred. According to Lyndon Johnson,  220;those sailors were shooting at each other, and at flying fish 221;. Johnson used the Gulf of Tonkin, as an excuse to wage war in Vietnam, to prop up the corrupt South Vietnamese dictatorial regime, which repressed its own people, including the Buddhist Monks. Nothing was gained by that war, as 1.5 million Vietnamese civilians were killed, as well as nearly 60,000 Americans. The Vietnamese jailers had a reason to be hostile to the American flyers, since they had witnessed men, women, and children killed by American bombs, including napalm. Less than 40 years later, Bush #43 , Rumsfeld, Cheney, and Karl Rove organized the invasion of Iraq, which also proved to be a disaster for America. Will people ever learn?
I wonder how supposedly shomer shabbos yidden {i.e) Lieberman, Jared Kushner & Ivanka Trump attended a funeral in a catholic cathedral on shabbos, spoke in a microphone and are not transgressing the laws of shabbos & entering a house of avodah zorah. I have no tynah to them, nor will I judge their actions, that is the function of the Abishter. I served for 6 years in the Army and in Vietnam. What got me through was faith in Yiddishkeit & HaShem. John McCain was a patriot, a hero, civil mentch & a devoted friend of Israel. May he rest in peace. And as much as I would have liked to pay my respects to a fellow veteran. I would NEVER transgress the laws of Shabbos to do so! Perhaps I will be able to visit Annapolis one day during the week.
When he was running against Obama, you guys were worshiping at his feet.
So who did more for Israel and showed more kavod for another person, McCain or the peanut gallery critics we read here?
To Archy-#20- Your facts are just plain wrong; you seemed to justify the invasion of Iraq by George W. Bush, by bringing up 9/11. The facts of the matter is that Iraq, and Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with 9/11. The commission which investigated the 9/11 attack against the USA, clearly exonerated Saddam Hussein for that attack.There was nothing gained by Bush’s invasion of Iraq, and the ensuing carnage, resulting in nearly 8,000 dead American soldiers, 50,000 wounded (including many with missing limbs from IED’s), and trillions of taxpayer dollars, not to mention the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians, whom were needlessly killed. Today, it is not safe in Iraq, because of suicide bombers. It has less electricity being generated, than before the war. When Saddam Hussein was in power, there were no terrorists whom were active in Iraq, as they all feared him, and he maintained order. Bush should have stayed out of Iraq, as clearly his intelligence was wrong. Even Generals Brent Scowcroft, and Colin Powell, as well as his own Father, George Herbert Walker Bush, were against that invasion. However, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rove and Bush will not admit that they were wrong.