Ted Kennedy Has a Malignant Brain Tumor

Filed in National by on May 20, 2008

News is breaking that doctors have discovered a malignant brain tumor in Senator Kennedy.  Kennedy has been in the hospital since Sunday when he suffered a seizure in Hyannisport.  The most common treatment for this kind of tumor is radiation and chemotherapy.

About the Author ()

Comments (37)

Trackback URL | Comments RSS Feed

Sites That Link to this Post

  1. Outside the Perimeter: Summer Begins Edition « kavips | June 3, 2008
  1. RickJ19958 says:

    Wow. Politics aside, my thoughts and prayers go out to the Senator and his family. I have lost friends to brain tumors, and would wish the heartache and pain this ailment brings on no one.

  2. Pandora says:

    This news makes me sad. I don’t think the prognosis is good for this type of cancer.

  3. Dorian Gray says:

    Well it is nice to see that this hasn’t turned into a log of cruel jokes. It is a liberal leaning site but it is also rather crass at times – and I am just as guilty as anyone (except Donviti).

    The one thing I never understood is what sending thoughts and prayers will do. First off, prayers will do nothing. I think we should sacrifice a goat and do a rain dance.

    Nevertheless, this is a sad turn of events.

  4. RickJ19958 says:

    I have no intention of turning this into a debate on matters of faith. If it makes you feel superior, know that I’m stupid enough that I’m asking my invisible sky-man to look out for someone who I have nothing in common.

  5. liz allen says:

    It sounds like he may have a difficult time of this. At least will be out of commission for awhile, hurts the balance of power in the Senate.

    I hear he has other health problems as well, which may make his recovery even more difficult.

    Did anyone hear that republican nutjob who called Jensen yesterday, he claimed “most assuredly that Kennedy was drunk”, I hope that guy is feeling bad today for such an idiotic comment not based on any fact.

  6. Liz, you have no standing on comments admonishing people who call other people drunks, for shame.

  7. Joe M says:

    My heart goes out to the Kennedys. I’ve lost a loved one from cancer and don’t wish it on anyone.

    Here’s to hoping he pulls through

  8. Al Mascitti says:

    “First off, prayers will do nothing. I think we should sacrifice a goat and do a rain dance.”

    I’m going with prayer, but if it works, I’m for it.

    I’m also for barbecuing the goat before we do the rain dance.

  9. jason330 says:

    Al sounds like a “Pascal’s Wager” kind of guy.

  10. Rebecca says:

    This news breaks my heart. He has been such a warrior for what is right about America. You would never catch Teddy in the DLC. He’s got principles and he sticks to them.

    Get well Senator Kennedy.

  11. Hube says:

    What a laugh. If this was a conservative icon, you’d be neck high in crude wish-for-death humor by now.

    Screw all of you putzes.

  12. Pandora says:

    Funny, I remember feeling badly about Tony Snow.

    Gotta love those conservative values! So, screw you, hypocrite.

  13. Al Mascitti says:

    Unlike some expressions of religious practice, prayer is, to my knowledge, incapable of causing harm.

  14. liberalgeek says:

    Hube, please search DL for my posts on Falwell and Tony Snow. Then you can look to see how you responded to my post on Louis Farakhann. I think you will see that I come down firmly on the side of sympathy.

  15. Hube says:

    Talk to your blog-pals, Pandora. Or, does that make too much fucking sense to realize?

    Oh, and I wonder what Mary Jo Kopechne thinks about all this, eh?

  16. Al Mascitti says:

    Hube: I remember when Lee Atwater voiced regrets on his deathbed. It made me glad I hadn’t reacted to news of his cancer with feelings of gloating or revenge. You have to take my word for that, of course, but there it is.

  17. Savy Politico says:

    I’m in!!….goat roast at Al’s or Dana’s?

    I have empathy for the family and compassion for Sen. Kennedy. Luckily for him he’ll have the best Boston has to offer in superior health care treatment…so if he has good prognosis he will be with us.

    It’s always sad when a member of the U.S. Royal family is affected with more suffering.

  18. Savy Politico says:

    ERROR:

    In # 17 I meant to say Dorian Gray or Al’s for the goat roast….Dana’s works just as well for me.

  19. Joe M says:

    Hube,

    I also don’t think I’d like to be lumped in with that generalization.

  20. G Rex says:

    No kidding, Hube. The complete lack of meanness by those of us on the right about Teddy’s illness stands in stark contrast with wishing Cheney had been killed in the mortar attack, saying Tony Snow deserved his cancer for “peddling the Bush administration’s lies” and hoping Jerry Falwell burns in hell.

    I’ll admit I hope this leads Kennedy to retire from the Senate, but I hope he lives a long and peaceful life. The Kennedy family has suffered enough loss for any ten families.

  21. Prayers are for his family, they will be the survivors.

    They will certainly get mine.

  22. June says:

    I don’t know who Hube is, but obviously he (or she) is a mean, unhappy person to make a comment like that to people he doesn’t even know. I don’t know how others feel, but my guess is most of us don’t wish cancer or any other tragic circumstances on people we disagree with politically. Too bad Hube has no comprehension of the goodness of people. And to mention Mary Jo Kopechne yet. Shame on you. It must be nice to be perfect.

  23. jason330 says:

    The LIBERAL BOGEYMAN looms large in Hube imagination.

    He is always telling us what the liberal bogeyman would do or say. It is some kind of projection problem rooted in some childhood trauma.

  24. jason330 says:

    It is kinda funny because he excuses every Republican/conservative vice by claiming that liberals are worse.

    I think that there is a battle of platonic shadows raging against the cave wall that is Hubes brain.

  25. A. Bundy says:

    “This news breaks my heart. He has been such a warrior for what is right about America.”

    I don’t wish him ill will. I really don’t. But you’re not including the time he left that girl to die in the car right? You know, when he went back to his hotel, got changed, made phone calls and took a nap and had about TEN HOURS to report the incident but never did even though his friends had told him to countless times! You mean he was a “warrior for what is right about America” after that right? Because if you think he was a warrior that night…we obviously have different definitions of the word warrior.

  26. Al Mascitti says:

    G Rex: I think the majority on both the left and the right understand that political differences shouldn’t cut to the bone. You don’t have to look long on national blogs to find crude or ugly sentiments from the vocal fringe on either side.

    To defend Hube, he has always railed hardest against hypocrisy, mostly by the left but also sometimes by the right (and by me, too). You’ll notice that, even here, he is not attacking Kennedy, but rather people who express sympathy for a liberal icon but gloated at the illness or death of conservatives on the national stage.

  27. Tyler Nixon says:

    One can question Ted Kennedy’s ideological bent but there can be no question that he has devoted his life to serving our country and its people, working tirelessly to advance the causes of justice, peace, and humanity.

    At a time when our political process and the halls of government have become infested with greed, influence peddling, and the service of narrow interests, Kennedy’s voice endures as a direct link through history to an era marked by a far nobler sense of purpose in public life.

    Only a truly hard heart could not feel sadness at hearing of Senator Kennedy’s dire affliction. All Americans of good faith should be thankful for his voice, his passion, and his tireless dedication to realizing our greatest ideals as a people. I pray he is healed and stays with us for as long as his spirit and dedication persist, no matter the adversity.

    Godspeed Senator Kennedy.

  28. well let me be the first to say it then. I personally don’t give a shit. The guy is 70fucking6 has been around for fucking ever and is the reason why we should have term limits.

    This crap with the Kennedy’s being the closest thing we have to royalty makes me want to puke. The guy has a brain tumor….how sad. some fucking kid lost his dad yesterday where are the countless posts on that bullshit.

    NO…..god forbid, we have to honor a blow hard that did the same thing Clinton did/is doing to the party 30 years ago.

    I don’t feel bad for the guy, I feel bad for the guy that has a tumor and doesn’t/wont have the BEST medical care this PLANET has to offer.

    I feel said for that guy. I feel sad for the 13 y/o girl that gets pregnant and feels that she has to have the baby. I feel sad for her.

    I don’t feel sad for this windbag. He is 76 lived a Charmed life and will have the best doctors in the world working on him. If he was 20 then maybe. The guy is over the Average Age in the US

    gimme a break. This feigned heartfelt crap about some Senator is vomit worthy….I know it comes in three’s I just hope we can take out Lieberman or some other “longstanding” Senator that keeps Washington operating in the same cess pool year after year.

    Oh and DG let me know when the goat roast is. I will bring a bottle of Single Malt for the occassion in honor of old Teddy

    pathetic

  29. Tyler Nixon says:

    Thanks for the alternative (crank) viewpoint, viti.

    Gosh I have to wonder how much better the world would be if we all shared such empathy and compassion as you bring to the table.

    It may be hard for you to believe, but I suspect the positive sentiments expressed here are no more feigned than your sour cynicism.

    We still love you, though.

  30. always keeping it real. all this out pouring of condolences is as if the guy is their own widdle daddy.

    It’s not like the guy was some tragic person that battled through the odds and OHHHH woe is me then got a brain tumor just as he was coming into his own. the guy has had a charmed life and now he has a tumor, sure he will suffer and I’m not pleased by any of this.

    that being said, I hardly really care as much as half of these posters seem too. Heck if I had a cousin I had never met with the same afliction I would care a little more.

    whatever, everyone is just associating his ailment as if it were someone in there own family.

  31. Tyler Nixon says:

    Just remember…sometimes keepin’ it real goes horribly wrong.

  32. jason330 says:

    I didn’t think anyone could top Bundy’s (#25) post.

  33. I didn’t say he deserves. I’m just saying I don’t think I could care any less. In my own special way of course.

    I care more about the child that lost it’s leg b/c a bomb meant for a “top AQ operative” or the soldier that died in the “war”

    But that story is played out and the news media doesn’t have time to paint those pictures 3x’s a day.

  34. Al says:

    I believe this sort of thing transcends politics. I must admit in the back of my mind I did recall Mary Jo but she is a part of the whole Ted Kennedy persona. I remember reading her last parent had passed on a couple of years ago. I’m sad for the family that has experienced more grief than most of us ever will. I’m also sad for the citizens of Massachusetts who have or will lose one who they have chosen to represent them for so many years. My prayers go to his family and loved ones. Young women drowning in cars notwithstanding, I would have to say that no one deserves what he will experience in the coming months. For that, I do feel a bit sad for him also.

  35. Brian says:

    This is profoundly sad. The Kennedy clan have given their life to the service of our nation. I think we should keep that in mind, we may disagree with their opinions on occasion, but they have done more for this nation than most other families and have been willing to sacrifice whatever it takes. They are heroic.