It is fitting that the National Institutes of Health will dedicate one of its research laboratories in honor of former U.S. Sen. and Gov. Lowell P. Weicker Jr. On May 5, the NIH will conduct the ceremony renaming renovated Building No. 4 the Lowell P. Weicker Building. It is located at NIH’s main campus in Bethesda, Md.

In a recent Day article, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, pointed to Mr. Weicker’s role as a U.S. senator in fighting to make federal funding available for the drug AZT (azidothymidine). The legislation made it possible for AIDS patients to obtain AZT while clinical trials were continuing but before it had received FDA approval, which came in 1987.

Recall that in the 1980s many politicians shied away from public policies aimed at addressing the deadly AIDS outbreak, due to the diseases close association at the time with homosexuality. Then Sen. Weicker prodded his legislative colleagues not to let prejudices get in the way of reacting to a health crisis.

Doing what was right rather than politically expedient was a hallmark of Mr. Weicker’s political career.

As a freshman Republican senator, Mr. Weicker served on the Senate Watergate Committee and showed no favoritism in aggressively investigating the corruption within the administration of Republican President Richard M. Nixon. The committee’s work led to the introduction of articles of impeachment, persuading President Nixon to resign. Mr. Weicker, now 83 and living in Old Lyme, is the last surviving member of the committee.

After his 1990 election as Connecticut governor, running under the political banner A Connecticut Party, Mr. Weicker took the most controversial step of his political career, pushing for creation of a state income tax. This newspaper editorially endorsed the move, seeing it as the only plausible means of addressing the fiscal crisis then confronting Connecticut.

True, Mr. Weicker had campaigned on a platform of addressing the budgetary problems without an income tax, but as governor, he concluded there was no other reasonable option. The decision cost him great political damage and he did not seek re-election, but his efforts did restore the state’s fiscal stability.

Unfortunately, later governors and legislatures went on spending sprees, contributing to the fiscal problems that have returned over the last several years.

Whether it has been seeking support for AIDS research, investigating a president or addressing a state fiscal crisis, Mr. Weicker has put principled stands above political expediency.