Former Connecticut Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, a Democrat-turned-independent who sometimes baffled his original party over four terms in office and was the first Jewish vice presidential nominee, died on Wednesday at age 82.
According to a statement from his family, Lieberman died in Manhattan from complications from a fall. First elected as a Democrat in 1988, when he narrowly defeated Republican Sen. Lowell P. Weicker Jr., Lieberman made a name for himself as a national security hawk and social liberal and was frequently a key swing vote and bipartisan deal-maker, heading up the centrist Democratic Leadership Council.
When then-Vice President Al Gore picked Lieberman to be his running mate in 2000, it was widely viewed as helping inoculate the ticket against being too close to the scandals that defined the last years of the administration of President Bill Clinton that Gore served.
