Lowell Weicker

Lowell Weicker was a Republican politician who became famous during the Watergate Scandal that led to the resignation of Richard Nixon. Weicker served one term in the House of Representatives (1969-71) and three terms in the U.S. Senate (1971-89). One of the last of a dying breed of "Rockefeller Republicans" (members of the GOP with liberal sympathies), he consistently alienated the conservative base of the party. He was a harsh critic of Nixon, which made his name nationally and created presidential buzz. In 1980, he ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 1980, but it was the year of Ronald Reagan and conservatives. As the GOP went steadily to the right under Reagan, Weicker became more out of step with the Republican base. He lost his bid for a fourth term to 'Joe Lieberman (I)', who was then a Democrat, albeit of a conservative stripe. (In 1986 rankings, the liberal organization Americans for Democratic Action's ratings of Senators ranked Weicker as the most liberal Republican in that august body; his rating was 20% higher than that of Democrat Chris Dodd of Connecticut, whose father former Senator Thomas Dodd Weicker beat in 1970.) Lowell Weicker had a brief political comeback, serving a single term as governor of Connecticut from 1991-95.