From Library Journal
In this short volume, U.S. Senator Joseph I. Lieberman (D-CT), chair of the influential Democratic Leadership Council (the moderate "third way" movement in the Democratic Party), has attempted to reclaim the moral high ground for public service. Aware of the rise of citizen contempt for public officials and voters' well-known cynicism about politics in general, Lieberman nonetheless attempts to inject a mainstream moral sensitivity into the public arena in hopes of both cleaning up the political process and drawing disaffected voters back into the fold. But his book is less a study of these advertised themes than a conventional political biography, focusing on Lieberman's political career. However, Lieberman does make some valuable points, and in his conclusion, he returns to the theme of the value of public service, offering some important reform proposals. For all public libraries.
---Michael A. Genovese, Loyola Marymount Univ., Los Angeles
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Kirkus Reviews
Countering rampant cynicism about politicians, US Senator Lieberman (D-Conn.; Child Support in America, 1986, etc.) and DOrso offer a sober, even convincing plea that what is right and good about this life . . . far outweighs the bad. Although noting that this is not a memoir, Lieberman often illustrates points by reviewing stages in his own career: staffer to Sen. Abraham Ribicoff, state senator, state attorney general, and, finally, after unseating Lowell Weicker, US senator. The senator doesnt hide the fact that the political arena is marked by nightmarish hours, glad-handing, fund-raising, and roughhousing over issues. And he is honest about the inevitably painful professional and personal setbacksin Liebermans case, defeat in a 1980 congressional race and divorce from his first wife. What makes it all worthwhile, he maintains, are legislation and constituent service, whereby politicians make a real difference in peoples lives. (From his two Senate terms, Lieberman cites environmental and defense reform, and humanitarian appeals for individual citizens from his state.) But the senator points to grave dangers arising from attack commercials that wrench single votes out of context from thousands cast; term limits that deny the value of experience; and press intrusions into private affairs unrelated to incumbents conduct in office. (Nevertheless, citing the Lewinsky imbroglio, Lieberman warns his colleagues that, as role models for young people, they are obligated to be above reproach.) One weakness in his discussion: Lieberman contends that public life offers the passive majority the opportunity to re-enter [the] struggle to define and express our national values, yet is vague about how government can balance liberty and license. While occasionally resorting to campaign boilerplate and neglecting specifics, Lieberman will seem to many readers, in his stress on citizens reciprocal rights and responsibilities, a throwback, however subdued, to Robert Kennedy. -- Copyright ©2000, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
About the Author
Senator Joseph I. Lieberman (Democrat -- Connecticut) is in his second term in the United States Senate. He serves on the Armed Services Committee and became Ranking Democratic Member on the Governmental Affairs Committee in January 1999. Since 1995, he has been Chairman of the Democratic Leadership Council.
