There's little disagreement that Lieberman got the nod because the Connecticut Democrat publicly condemned President Clinton for the Monica Lewinski imbroglio. And, since Lieberman is the first Jewish nominee chosen for a major party's national ticket, Gore is able to portray his carefully considered choice as a bold political gamble. In reality, Lieberman's selection was driven by political calculations so intricately calibrated that little was left to chance. To some extent, Americans should be proud; we've reached a milestone of sorts when Judaism can be exploited for political purposes just as Christianity always has been.

In his debut speech in Nashville late Tuesday, Lieberman "mentioned God 13 times in 90 seconds," according to New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd. Whatever happened to the notion that the public square should be a piety-free zone where an attitude of secular tolerance discouraged the use of religious belief as a political litmus test?

This parting of the curtain between sacred and secular is evident throughout the political system, but few commentators seem to realize the danger it presents. One of the reasons this nation has avoided the violent Balkanization of places like the Balkans (or Northern Ireland, Nigeria, Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, on and on), is the barrier to theocracy built into our Constitution. Invocations of the Deity by political candidates should never be expected, lest they become mandatory.

And that's not even the worst aspect of Gore's veep choice. Lieberman is the chair of the Democratic Leadership Council, the center-right, corporate-friendly caucus most responsible for altering the party's New Deal ideals of economic democracy and social justice. Although Lieberman has championed some progressive legislation, he more frequently has voted with corporate interests and Republicans. For example, the same insurance companies that Gore has been bashing in his stump speeches regard Lieberman as a staunch ally. "We consider Mr. Lieberman a friend of the insurance industry," Jack Dolan, a spokesman for the American Council on Life Insurance, told The New York Times.

According to Paul Bass, associate editor of the New Haven Advocate, during Lieberman's first senatorial campaign Lieberman "attacked liberal Republican Lowell Weicker from the right on school prayer and red-baited him for his support for normalizing trade with Fidel Castro." Bass, who has written about the Connecticut senator for 20 years, noted, "his biggest financial backers are military contractors, financial services companies and pro-Israel groups." Lieberman's voting record and his public positions on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict cast serious doubt on whether he can help the U S. serve as an honest broker between the two antagonists. The senator also has been a strong advocate of the sanctions on Iraq that United Nations agencies claim are killing 5,000 children a month. This is another area where Lieberman's Jewish faith could provide cover for the administration's biased policies; fearing that criticism of his Middle East positions could easily be mischaracterized as anti-Semitism, many critics would prefer silence.

Lee Alcorn was one critic who should have remained silent. He is the former president of the Dallas branch of the NAACP, who last week was suspended from his position for saying Americans need to be suspicious of Jews like Lieberman "because we know that their interest primarily has to do with, you know, money and these kinds of things." Alcorn insists his remarks were taken out of context. And, it is a bit unfair to focus on a black man as a major force of anti-Semitic opposition (since African-Americans seldom are implicated in serious expressions of anti-Semitism). But Alcorn's dismay at Lieberman's ascension is echoed in much of black America, where many wonder when their slavish devotion to the Democratic Party will earn them a spot on a national ticket.

Still, most black leaders were lavish in their praise of Lieberman. "I congratulate Gore for having the courage to do it," said the Rev. Al Sharpton on cable station CNBC's "Hardball." When NAACP president Kweisi Mfume suspended Alcorn, he called Lieberman "a friend and fighter for all that is good and decent in our society." The Rev. Jesse Jackson said, "another barrier has fallen and a new opportunity has risen."

But given Lieberman's liabilities, the opportunity may be rising fastest for Green Party candidate Ralph Nader.

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