Joseph I Lieberman

Despite a fifth-place finish in Tuesday's New Hampshire primary, Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut vowed to press on with his presidential campaign, casting the best face on a night that saw him marooned far back in the Democratic pack. Garnering 9% of the vote, Lieberman insisted to a crowd of 250 supporters at an auditorium here that he had finished in a "three-way split decision for third place." That was Lieberman's optimistic spin on trailing retired Army Gen. Wesley K. Clark and Sen.

A pair of Joe Lieberman's aides pounced on the two people having breakfast Monday at a coffee shop here: The candidate was coming in just a few moments, they said, breathless. Would they like to meet him? "Sure," the two friends said. "We work for another candidate. But what the heck? We'd like to meet Joe." Moments later, the two slipped out the door before Lieberman arrived. Such is how the New Hampshire campaign has gone for the Connecticut senator who would be president.

Resting in a wheelchair as her son finished a speech at City Hall here Saturday night, 89-year-old Marcia Lieberman shook her head and gave that worried look that only a mother can give. The U.S. senator from Connecticut vying for the Democratic presidential nomination was the kind of boy who brought struggling students home from school for tutoring. At 61, he still calls his mother every night from the campaign trail, no matter where it takes him.

A hush settled over the Senate chamber five years ago as Joe Lieberman rose to scold his party's president, Bill Clinton, for moral lapses. The silence weighs on him still. The room was nearly empty as the Connecticut Democrat began reading a speech he had honed for two weeks. Staring down at his lines, he was unaware that his colleagues were drifting back into the chamber to listen. "Such behavior is not just inappropriate," Lieberman read in pained cadence, "it is immoral and it is harmful."

Democratic presidential contender Sen. Joe Lieberman proposed an antipoverty plan Sunday at the historic home of a leader of South Carolina's civil rights movement. The plan calls for expanding special individual savings accounts that match investments dollar for dollar, provided the money is used to buy a home, invest in a small business or pay for education.

With most of the eight Democratic presidential hopefuls campaigning almost exclusively in Iowa in advance of today's caucuses, retired Gen. Wesley K. Clark and Sen. Joe Lieberman have had New Hampshire nearly all to themselves in recent days. By early Tuesday, that will change. With four other major contenders coming to town, the two will be forced to share the spotlight and likely will be subjected to the same intense scrutiny that has made the Iowa contest one of the fiercest in years.

With Iowa's Jan. 19 caucuses approaching, Democrats chasing former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean relentlessly attacked his policies, temperament and credibility in a pointed debate Sunday. The focus was squarely on the front-runner in the Democratic presidential race throughout the two-hour session, as Sen. John F. Kerry of Massachusetts accused him of flip-flopping on issues, Rep. Dick Gephardt charged that Dean supported Republican plans to cut Medicare in the mid-1990s and Sen.

Sen. Joe Lieberman's political new year -- and the first day of his temporary residency in New Hampshire -- began Thursday in an unlikely manner for the self-positioned moderate, moral voice of the Democratic Party. He went barhopping. Holding a pint of Bud Light, Lieberman moved through the smoke and beer fumes of Jillian's Billiard Club to greet about 20 loyal supporters who had come specifically to see him, and a dozen or so midday regulars he caught by surprise.

Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.) asked the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to investigate whether market manipulation contributed to a 55% surge in natural-gas prices since November. Lieberman said there was no reason for spot market and futures prices to soar, given the amount of fuel stowed in underground storage to augment fresh supplies from pipelines during cold snaps.

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Lieberman said Friday he doesn't want to revisit the Roe vs. Wade decision that legalized abortion, disputing a New Hampshire newspaper story that suggested he believes the historic ruling should be updated to reflect medical advances. "I did not say nor do I believe that Roe should be looked at again, revisited or reconsidered," Lieberman said Friday in response to an article in the Union Leader of Manchester.