The Hill News

Today's political discourse has gotten too heated and extreme Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman (I) said Monday.

Lieberman made the remarks during a conference call with the centrist political group No Labels, which seeks to cultivate a coalition of Republicans and Democrats.

Lieberman said it's too soon to say whether the extreme rhetoric to which he referred had anything to do with the Saturday shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), but he warned that it was a problem by itself.

"It's too soon to sort of blame anybody, but it's very clear that if you look at the campaign that Congress[woman] Giffords went through, that it was very overheated and very personal and the language was much too aggressive and, unfortunately, that's not unique," Lieberman said. "This affects our polity, it affects peoples' attitude toward government in cases of people who are really troubled and vulnerable, it may lead them to more extreme actions, but, for most people, it's just a total turnoff. "

Regardless of whether the aggressive atmosphere of politics in Washington contributed to the shooting, Lieberman said it damages today's political discourse.

"I think the extremism and overheatedness in our political discourse today does have an effect generally," Lieberman.

Lieberman, who caucuses with the Democrats but identifies as an Independent, has broken ranks with his party on major legislation such as healthcare reform. In the conference call he said there needs to be more legislators willing to break with their parties to do what they think is right. Most importantly, though, Lieberman said everyone needs to stay calm.

"Most of all, let's keep this civil," Lieberman said.