New Jersey Sen. Frank Lautenberg, 86, doing OK after fall

The 86-year-old Democrat, the first New Jersey senator to be elected to five terms, was conscious when he was taken from his Cliffside Park home Monday night, spokesman Caley Gray said.

Lautenberg was doing well at the hospital but was to stay there overnight for routine observation, Gray said.

"The senator is in great spirits and joking with the doctors," said Gray, who didn't know if the senator had fallen inside or outside the apartment or whether he had suffered any injuries.

Lautenberg returned Friday from a trip to Haiti with a congressional delegation. He was scheduled to discuss the trip and the U.S. aid effort for the island nation, which is recovering from a devastating earthquake, at a news conference on Tuesday.

Lautenberg was first elected to the Senate in 1982. He retired in 2000 but was called back in 2002 as a late replacement for Sen. Robert Torricelli, who abandoned his re-election bid amid an ethics controversy five weeks before Election Day.