Lieberman, four-term U.S. senator, dies at age 82

Joseph I. Lieberman, the four-term U.S. senator from Connecticut who was the Democratic nominee for vice president in 2000, becoming the first Jewish candidate on the national ticket of a major party, died Wednesday in New York City, the Washington Post reported.

He was 82.

He died of complications from a fall, the newspaper said, citing a statement from his family.

Lieberman viewed himself as a centrist Democrat, solidly in his party’s mainstream with his support of abortion rights, environmental protection, gay rights and gun control.

But he was also unafraid to stray from Democratic orthodoxy, most notably in his consistently hawkish stands on foreign policy.

His support of the 2003 invasion of Iraq and the increasingly unpopular war that followed doomed his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2004 — and later led to his rejection by Connecticut Democrats when he sought his fourth Senate term in 2006. He kept his seat by running that November as an independent candidate and attracting substantial support from Republican and unaffiliated voters.

John McCain seriously considered making Lieberman his running mate in 2008, but his advisers warned that Lieberman’s past would split the GOP.