Lieberman, who is in the middle of a tough election fight with Democratic candidate Ned Lamont, said the report’s conclusion "will be part of the historic judgment on what happened before, but as a policy maker and elected leader, I am focused on the fact that al-Qaida is there now."

When asked if the decision to go to war with Iraq had a bearing on members of al-Qaida now operating in that country, Lieberman said: "I’m not going to get into that today."...

Lieberman made his remarks, before being hustled away by aides, after he spoke at a ceremony at the Old State House to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

Beaten in Primary, Lieberman Turns to Lobbyists for Help

"Sen. Joe Lieberman (?-Conn.) increasingly has been relying on Washington, D.C., lobbyists — Republicans as well as Democrats — to help him hang on to his seat.

"Though it won’t be known until mid-October how much money Lieberman has or will have raised from Republicans since his August primary loss, GOP lobbyists clearly are eager to help him.

"Take, for example, an invitation to an upcoming Lieberman fundraiser circulated by Ruth Ravitz Smith, a GOP lobbyist at Brown Rudnick.

"'I hope that you will join me in demonstrating your support for Senator Lieberman’s campaign for the US Senate,' Smith wrote in the e-mail. 'This will be the only major event for the Senator in Washington this fall. Please help spread the word to colleagues, clients and friends.'

Gerstein also vowed to personally investigate the matter of Republican contributions to the Lieberman campaign, saying he didn't think the senator had "taken a significant amount of money from registered Republicans."

He invited us inside his personal life, and passion in his voice and quality of his writing made it easy to accept the invitation.