CLINTONS CELEBRATE LIEBERMAN AT PARTY.

Byline: Valerie Kuklenski Staff Writer

CULVER CITY - About 3,000 Jewish leaders and activists joined President Clinton and the first lady Sunday in celebrating the history-making candidacy of Sen. Joe Lieberman for vice president.

Speakers at the gala on the Main Street set at Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City praised Vice President Al Gore's choice of the Orthodox Jewish senator from Connecticut as his running mate.

It was the nomination that had brought such a large crowd to the event and ignited their enthusiasm.

Todd Morgan, chairman of the Jewish Federation, stood at the podium and ripped up the speech he wrote last Sunday to focus on the dramatic turn of events.

``For the first time, we can look at the faces of our children and our children and our grandchildren and say, you, too, could be president,'' he said.

The president and Hillary Rodham Clinton - appearing in part as her party's Senate candidate from New York - were the star speakers at the event hosted by the America Israel Public Affairs Council, United Jewish Communities, the National Jewish Democratic Council and the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles.

President Clinton reflected on meeting Lieberman 30 years ago, when he and Hillary Rodham were law students and Lieberman was a 28-year-old candidate for Connecticut state Senate.

Clinton said he was very impressed that Lieberman had been a Freedom Rider in the South, registering African-American voters. The Clintons have kept in close touch since.

``He's a brilliant man, a little bit of an iconoclast, always thinking new thoughts, and I think we need more of that in politics,'' the president said.

The first lady echoed many speakers before her when she encouraged the crowd to make the most of the historic decision by campaigning for Gore and other Democratic candidates.

``I don't think any of us can be deterred in any way from talking to anyone we can about why we're such strong supporters of the Democratic Party,'' she said. ``For all of us who care about this election and who care about this extraordinary ticket of Al Gore and Joe Lieberman, we need to speak with one clear voice.''

The president also talked of his foreign policy efforts, particularly in the Middle East peace process.

``I won't sugar-coat it,'' he said. ``I wanted an agreement and we didn't get one. But significant progress was made at Camp David.''

He said that at last month's talks subjects were open to discussion that no one ever dared broach before.

``By definition, agreements require compromise,'' he said, ``which means no one gets 100 percent and neither side is in the position to say it has completely vanquished the other.

``We may or may not get an agreement, but we ought to keep trying.''

The Clintons were warmly received during their speeches and afterward, when they worked the crowd, which included several senators, congressmen and candidates from across the country.

Lieberman was in Washington, D.C, and did not attend.

Andrew Cuomo, Clinton's Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, told the crowd he had attended a convention party for Italian-Americans.

``They were relishing your joy because it means if we can do it with a Jewish-American, we can do it with an Italian-American, an African- American, a Latino-American.''

Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Woodland Hills, said in an interview that aside from his personal pride in Lieberman's nomination, he believes he will be good for Gore in terms of votes. He said Lieberman is not only Gore's choice, but the choice of the political experts in his campaign.

``They are dispassionate, they are calculating, they are spending tens of thousands of dollars each week to learn what the country thinks, and they did not pick Joe Lieberman because they thought he would cost them votes,'' Sherman said.

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2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) First lady Hillary Rodham Clinton joins the president at a Jewish community celebration Sunday in Culver City.

(2) Scott Szonkin's yarmulke sports a political message Sunday at a festival hosted by Jewish groups at Sony Pictures Studios.

John McCoy/Staff Photographer