During a memorial service last week, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) remembered the late Sen. Joe Lieberman.
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NewsTranscript
00:00I learned today that his middle name was Isidore.
00:21His passing saved him a lot of grief.
00:27I can't believe I didn't know that.
00:31Oh wow, I'm going to get through this, Hadassah.
00:34We all will.
00:36So the common bond, why are we all here?
00:40We love Joe, right?
00:43And he loved us.
00:44And to be loved by Joe Lieberman is an experience you will never, ever forget.
00:50His dad owned a liquor store.
00:52My dad owned a liquor store.
00:55Good training for the job in which we're talking about today.
00:59Good training for religious people.
01:04So I loved him like a brother, and I never had one.
01:10The three amigos, you can't see this, but you can come up and see it later.
01:15We're on some 130 going somewhere in Kevlar.
01:20John's reading a book.
01:22Joe is looking at his phone, and I'm asleep.
01:26That's the most accurate picture in the world about the three amigos.
01:32Now how did this happen?
01:35You know, Al, you talked about your partner and all the things he did, and Susan, what
01:39a great summary of legislative accomplishments.
01:42But people got to remember, after 9-11, Joe changed.
01:49Joe was always a social liberal.
01:52Always the nicest guy in the room, the smartest guy in the room.
01:56But after 9-11, that night, I talked to him, going across the street.
02:02He said, Lindsey, boy, we can never let this happen again.
02:06And from that came the three amigos.
02:10And from that is the highlight of my life.
02:15So much to talk about in such a short period of time.
02:19Everybody's got a Dalai Lama story.
02:22Here's mine.
02:28We're at the Wailing Wall.
02:30This is how it begins.
02:32John's running for president.
02:33So me and Joe are just going wherever John goes and making it up as we go.
02:38So John is supposed to go to the Wailing Wall and Western Wall and put his hand out.
02:44And that's the money shot for the Israeli press.
02:47What did I learn at the Wailing Wall?
02:49Do not get between the Israeli press and John McCain.
02:53So they crushed me against the wall.
02:57And I began to wail.
02:58So it's actually, help me, help me.
03:02Joe got me up.
03:05So I wrenched my knees.
03:07Fast forward.
03:08The next stop, somehow, is we meet the Dalai Lama in Colorado.
03:11You can't make this stuff up, right?
03:14So I'm sitting over in the corner because I'm barely walking.
03:16Joe brings the Dalai Lama over.
03:18And he says, I want you to meet my good friend Lindsey Graham.
03:21I said, hey, Dalai.
03:22I mean, hello.
03:23I don't know.
03:24What do you say to the guy?
03:25Hello, Dalai.
03:26He's hurt his knee.
03:27Can you help him?
03:28So he puts his hand on my knee.
03:30The Dalai Lama does, not Joe.
03:34And he goes, mm, mm, mm.
03:38And he says, is it any better?
03:39And I said, no.
03:40And he says, I didn't think so.
03:43So anybody met Gaddafi?
03:51You didn't miss a lot.
03:53So Susan, you might have been there.
03:56So John had all these great ideas and some not so good.
04:02This was one of the not so good ideas.
04:03Let's go meet Gaddafi.
04:04I said, why?
04:05Well, anyway, so we go meet him.
04:08We drive around in the middle of the night, and we go to this tent.
04:12And this guy's jacked up on everything you can put in a human body.
04:16And he's got Amazon women bodyguards, and I'm trying to find a way out of here.
04:22So he starts out talking about the great scourge of mankind.
04:27It's not climate change in his eyes.
04:28It was Switzerland.
04:32We're here with this nut job, surrounded by all these people with guns.
04:37And he went on and on about how we should dismember Switzerland and give it to the
04:42French, the Italians, and the Germans.
04:45And it was always John, Joe, and me.
04:48John quickly said, I'm going to let Joe speak first.
04:55Joe said, I never really thought about it that way, but I've learned a lot, and I appreciate
05:00having met you.
05:04So we lived to tell about it.
05:06The last quick story, John read somewhere 500 people were killed in one of the stands
05:12protesting against the government.
05:15So John called me, and Joe said, we need to go.
05:18And I said, why?
05:21Joe said, 503 sounds better to John.
05:25There was no place that John and Joe wouldn't go to show up for all the right reasons.
05:30And I'm here to tell you it was the highlight of my life to be around those two guys doing
05:38things that mattered at a time of great peril, being able to laugh.
05:44Your husband, your grandfather, your father was the coolest dude on the planet to me because
05:52he could deliver jokes, just endless jokes.
05:58I am so blessed to have known him.
06:00Adjective, he was humble, right?
06:03Confident.
06:04He knew Iran was bad, and nobody was going to convince him otherwise.
06:09And he believed we should see it through in Iraq, and he's willing to lose for it.
06:13That's confidence.
06:14He had confidence in who he was and what he believed.
06:18He was kind, incredibly kind to me, but strong, strong to the point he would give what most
06:26of us would never think about giving up our job in politics.
06:31That's strong.
06:33He was religious to the point of enough already.
06:42Do we have any orthodox people here?
06:45Raise your hand.
06:47Too many rules.
06:50Joe could tell you when it was sundown any place on the planet on a Friday.
06:56I don't care where we were, he knew it was sundown.
06:59What did I learn when it was sundown on Saturday so we didn't have to do this anymore?
07:05So I learned a lot.
07:08Finally, Vice President Gore, Joe Lieberman convinced me from South Carolina to do a climate
07:16change bill with him and John Kerry, which means he's the most persuasive person on the
07:25frigging planet.
07:30He sold me hook, line, and sinker, and the problem is real.
07:35We met, and we met, and we met, and we talked, and we talked, and we talked, and Joe kept
07:40me in the game.
07:41And so what did I learn?
07:42A lot about climate change, and I got a restraining order against John Kerry.
07:47So that was an incredible experience.
07:53So from the time I met the man until the time he passed, I was better off for having
08:00met him.
08:01Hadassah, he was the love of your life.
08:05To the family, I know he's your patriarch and your rock, in order to make you feel good
08:10to the grandkids, you're trying to save Social Security, how are you doing your part?
08:14To all the grandkids, I hope you'll listen to all the things being said about your granddad.
08:22He was a wonderful man, and one of the best things that ever happened to Lindsey Graham
08:28was to meet Joe Lieberman.
08:31So until we meet again, my amigo, God bless.