ASHVILLE - Opening a new chapter in American political history, Vice President Al Gore yesterday chose Senator Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut as his running mate, completing the Democratic ticket with the first-ever Jewish candidate for the office. It was a bold political move that Lieberman called a ''miracle.''
An emotional Lieberman, notified informally of the vice president's choice yesterday morning, accepted Gore's invitation at about 1 p.m. and then headed to Nashville with his wife, Hadassah, and four other family members to join the Gore family for dinner.
''At certain times in my life, I dreamed of being a United States senator, in itself a pretty bold and outrageous dream,'' Lieberman told reporters outside his Connecticut home.
''I was lucky enough to realize that. I never dreamed of this. It says to me and everyone else that every day we're lucky enough to be alive by the grace of God is full of possibilities, and miracles happen. I consider this a miracle for which I am grateful.''
Lieberman and Gore ''said a short prayer together'' when Gore called to offer him the spot, the senator said.
Gore, for his part, refused to discuss his choice, insisting that he would make his formal announcement today in Nashville. ''I'm going to pick someone who will be able to become president on a moment's notice, if that should ever become necessary,'' the vice president told reporters as he exited a local soda shop.
''I'll pick someone who shares my values and can be a good partner for me, and who will join me in fighting for people and not the powerful.''
A political centrist and a man commonly regarded as a voice of moralism in the US Senate, Lieberman was praised yesterday by Democrats and Republicans alike. But while Democrats argued that the deeply religious Lieberman would bring a tenor of moral rectitude to the ticket, Republicans argued that Lieberman's differences with Gore on issues such as Social Security and school vouchers would spell trouble for the Democrats' campaign.
The Connecticut senator is ''a good man whom Governor Bush and Secretary [Dick] Cheney respect ... for his intelligence, his integrity, and for many of the positions he has taken,'' Ari Fleischer, spokesman for the Bush-Cheney campaign, said. Some of those positions - favoring private school vouchers in certain cases, for example - are closer to Bush's views than Gore's, Fleischer said.
Gore's spokesman, Chris Lehane, dismissed the criticism, saying Gore and Lieberman are in agreement on many key issues, such as support for the ''V-chip'' to screen violent TV programs, funding for enterprise zones, and strict environmental protection.
''Al Gore is at the top of this ticket. The ticket is going to reflect his agenda,'' Lehane said.
Lieberman is perhaps best known as the first Democratic senator to chastize President Clinton publicly for his conduct in the Monica S. Lewinsky scandal.
''Such behavior is not just inappropriate, it is immoral,'' Lieberman told his Senate colleagues in September 1998.
''My feelings of disappointment and anger have not dissipated, except now these feelings have gone beyond my personal dismay to a larger, graver sense of loss for our country, a reckoning of the damage that the president's conduct has done to the proud legacy of his presidency, and ultimately an accounting of the impact of his actions on our democracy and its moral foundations.''
Clinton, vacationing on Martha's Vineyard, nevertheless saluted Lieberman yesterday as ''a wonderful friend to me.
''He's been great for America,'' said the president, who as a student worked on one of Lieberman's early-career campaigns for the Connecticut state Senate. ''I'm very happy about Joe Lieberman.''
Both campaign aides and Democratic consultants said Lieberman's presence on the ticket will help neutralize the kind of character attacks the Republicans made during their convention.
''This will work very well,'' said former vice president and presidential nominee Walter F. Mondale. ''He is able, respectable, and represents the middle of the Democratic spectrum. Lieberman also separates the issue of Clinton's behavior from the Gore ticket.''
David Axelrod, a Democratic consultant in Chicago who is closely allied with Mayor Richard M. Daley, called Lieberman ''a moral and ethical leader who is also someone who has supported the right issues - the patients' bill of rights and prescription drugs [for Medicare patients] - that puts the ticket on the side of working families.''
But the most dramatic response was to the vice president's dramatic move to break a religion barrier, a decision that surprised and impressed many in the Democratic Party.
''Al Gore deserves a lot of credit'' for making the choice, Ed Rendell, the Democratic Party general chairman, said in an interview. Rendell had observed last Saturday that ''if Joe Lieberman were Episcopalian, he would be a slam-dunk,'' a comment that suggested Gore would not risk selecting a Jew as his running mate.
''What I meant was that if he were an Episcopalian, there'd be nothing to hold him back as a vice presidential candidate,'' explained Rendell, who is Jewish. He added that he called Lieberman and that Lieberman ''said it's fine; he understood what I meant. He had no problem with it.''
As an Orthodox Jew, Lieberman is not supposed to work on Saturdays, the Jewish Sabbath. Lieberman has debated and voted on Saturdays, citing an exception in Jewish law that allows work when human life or national security is at stake, noted Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League in New York.
Lehane said Lieberman's religion was not a major part of the search committee's discussions. Both campaign aides and Democratic analysts noted that people who wouldn't vote for the Democratic ticket because he is Jewish probably wouldn't have been voting Democratic anyway.
It's not yet clear whether Lieberman will completely avoid campaigning on Saturdays or during the high holidays.
Lieberman's selection ''is a milestone in America's political maturing process,'' Foxman said. ''In today's political culture, the fact that the senator wears his faith, his values, and his religiosity on his sleeve can be an asset rather than a liability.''
His religion ''has been a marginal factor'' in Connecticut politics, said Howard L. Reiter, a political science professor at the University of Connecticut.
The ticket ''is a test for the country, and I think it's a test we're going to pass with flying colors,'' said Mark Mellman, a Democratic consultant who is an informal Gore adviser. ''But make no mistake about it. It's going to be a test.''
Jews tend to vote Democratic, but Lieberman could energize the Jewish vote in Philadelphia, New York, New Jersey, California, Philadelphia, Illinois, and Michigan, a Gore campaign official said.
In the South, where Gore's standing is weak, the Lieberman candidacy could make Florida a competitive race, said Earl Black, a southern politics analyst at Rice University. Southern Florida is home to many retired Jewish voters from the northeast.
Lieberman's presence on the ticket could also boost the Senate campaign of Hillary Rodham Clinton in New York, said Lee Miringoff, head of the Poughkeepsie-based Marist Institute for Public Opinion.
Mrs. Clinton is attracting Jewish voters in the low 50's percentage-wise, and she needs to take about two-thirds of the Jewish vote, Miringoff said.
For John F. Kerry, who had made the short-short list of three final candidates, the announcement was a disappointment.
''This is the kind of day I'm used to because I'm a Red Sox fan,'' the Massachusetts senator joked, his fingers stroking the back of his wife, Teresa Heinz, as he spoke to reporters outside his home.
But ''for me it has been a great honor to go through this process, and both Teresa and I feel extraordinarily positive about it,'' Kerry added. ''I don't feel anything except enthusiasm for the next months.''
Staff reporter Glen Johnson contributed to this report.
