Based on his performance on the Senate floor the past 10 years, how did anyone know there was a problem?
Sen. Robert C. Byrd was hospitalized Monday night at his doctor’s urging after suffering from lethargy and sluggishness at the Capitol and, later, at his home, a spokesman for the 90-year-old Democrat said.
In all seriousness, I do hope Senators Kennedy’s and Byrd’s pain and suffering is eased by the healthcare industry they have long derided.
-Bruce (GayPatriot)
I hope that Senator Byrd is able to recover his health and continue to enjoy the life that is left for a man of his age.
Give me a break!!! No one in a wheelchair, incontinent and 90 should be in the Senate at all!!!!!
As I am famous for saying, “What goes around comes around!” and we are seeing it now, with Sens Kennedy and Byrd dependent on their healthcare systems. Too bad!!!!
Their health care system is a whole lot different than the average joe. I don’t think they’ll have to wait for any kind of preapproval. They want our medical care socialized but theirs is sacrosanct.
Ousslander, you hit the nail on the head! But even with all the flaws here, we have a better system than Canada and the UK. Of course there people in government have a different healthcare system than the average folk.
I’m with McCain on this one, make it more competitive – make room for the free market to work! Less government control.
Well put, Dan.
Hope the former Grand Kleagle of the KKK in West Virginia has a speedy recovery, along with the perpetrator of vehicular manslaughter and alcohol-addicted rich scion of Massachusetts.
They should be so lucky.
Regards,
Peter H.
Wasn’t Ted Kennedy attacking McCain a few weeks ago for his age?
Peter, you’ve actually typed out what I have been thinking. But there is the notion that once someone gets ill, one can no longer bring up misdeeds from his/her past.
With these people it’s like – those are the breaks, you skated through life all these years – now the piper is demanding his due. No one ‘deserves’ to get sick. But if Ted Kennedys’ final years have some pain and suffering involved – welcome to the human race.
Some friends in West Virginia told me the last time Senator Byrd ran for re-election — at age 88 — that many people had expected him to retire but after his wife died he apparently felt his relationships in the Senate were all he had left.
While I’ve thoroughly enjoyed watching some of Byrd’s talks about the U. S. Constitution, I’ve seldom agreed with positions he’s taken in the Senate. Yet it saddens me to see him become a laughing stock.
The other day when, on the Senate floor, he endorsed Obama, I was embarrassed for him as I watched TV coverage. His collar was askew and I think he was drooling. He could utter only a few words before having to pause. And during the pauses he made funny noises.
When I was a teenager I spent a lot of time almost every month roaming the halls of the Capitol and sitting in the galleries of the House and Senate. In those serene “Happy Days” it wasn’t impossible to get into the non-public areas and I had an advantage. I was neither a Texan nor a Democrat but for some reason the Majority Leader, Lyndon Johnson, took a liking to me. After the Capitol police and the various “doorkeepers” got used to seeing Johnson talking to me I got in to a lot of very private places and saw things that to this day have diminished my trust in the ability of the Congress to faithfully represent our interests.
He didn’t come close to serving as many years as Byrd has, but Senator Theodore Green, Democrat of Rhode Island, was older, well into his 90s, when I observed him.
One afternoon there was a very important vote in the Senate and the Whips of both parties were rounding up Senators. Before I left a back hall and went up to the gallery for the vote, I watched as staffers wheeled Green to the chamber. I thought he was drunk but was told that wasn’t the old man’s problem. Staffers set him in his chair and one stayed by his side to keep him propped up. When his name was called in the roll the staff member raised the Senator’s arm and a muffled “aye” could be heard but it was obviously not spoken by the elected Senator. A member of another Senator’s staff told me that Senator Green had his good and bad days and near the end of his career often did not have any idea where he was or what he was voting on.
I don’t know if Byrd has reached that point. And I was, from the distance of seeing him only on TV, unable to judge the condition of Strom Thurmond. But Senators Green and Byrd and surely others, and possibly Thurmond, emphasize what a shame it is that so many people in every field fail to grasp or refuse to admit when they can’t handle it anymore. It’s more of a shame that people who love and admore them don’t intervene before they become laughing stocks.
#8 – Trace brings up a good albeit indirect point – we need term limits. Now.
Anytime a Senator needs to be propped up and spoken for, then we as a republic are no better off than Rome under Caligula, when he put his horse in the Roman senate as a voting member.
I fear for our future, as we may be heading into our decline.
Regards,
Peter H.
Many of you will not agree, but I think that, while I seldom agree with Ted Kennedy on political issues and can’t forgive him for the fatal car accident, it’s OK to like the guy. We have common friends who’ve told me many times how loyal he is to friends, how warm, thoughtful and caring he is among friends and associatiates and how funny he can be. I’ve shaken his hand maybe a half dozen times in very brief — basically, hello, glad to see you — encounters. But there was one time in Washington when I experienced first hand his warmth and great sense of humor.
It involved a trip to the White House that a friend and I made during the Nixon Administration. That friend used to post comments here and he may have told the story. Or I did and simply forgot. If so, I beg your pardon for repeating it as a prelude to the Kennedy story.
It was a beautiful spring day and my friend and I decided to turn down the offer of a White House car and walk over from our hotel not far from the White House. As we approached the northwest gate we found ourselves in the middle of a group of high school students on a field trip to Washington. They had missed out on the morning White House tour and were expressing disappointment that they had to view the White House through the fence.
My friend and I were, if I have the year right, not far past 30 but easily passed for college undergraduates. We decided to be ornery and told some of the high schoolers that it shouldn’t be all that hard to get into the White House; all they had to do was go up to the gate and talk to one of the guards. None of the students were willing to try it, at least not with teachers and a couple of parental chaperones standing right there listening to the conversation. Well, my friend and I said we’d try it, the worst that could happen would be the guards would turn us away.
We went to the gate, gave the guards our names and upon showing photo IDs, which we were careful to display to the guards without letting the students see us doing it, we were admitted to the White House grounds. As we strutted down the drive toward the West Wing we turned and waved and shrugged our shoulders at the dumb-founded group of high schoolers. It was all we could do to keep from busting up.
Amyway, that evening we went to dinner at a popular seafood restaurant in Washington. In order to get to our table we had to walk by two very long tables where the students from the White House sidewalk were eating. They recognized us and immediately wanted to know how we got admitted to the White House. We’re just smooth talkers we said and proceeded to our table.
About 20 minutes later we saw Senator Kennedy and two other men enter the dining room. The students, who we would shortly learn were from Massachusetts, were very excited and stood and surrounded the Senator as he shook their hands. The other men went to a table but Kennedy remained with the students, apparently until he had greeted each student and adult. Several of the students who were talking to Kennedy pointed at my friend and me and the Senator turned and looked in our direction.
When Kennedy finished with the field trip group he came over to our table and introduced himself and said the students wanted to know how we got inside the White House, that after we were admitted several of them did indeed go up to the guard house and ask to be admitted just as we were but were told to run along, the guards didn’t have time to mess around. I’m guessing the guards were wise to the trick we’d played on the students because they apparently didn’t tell them that we were on the list of persons having appointments in the West Wing.
Kennedy sat at our table while we told him the story. His Irsish eyes twinkled and he had a good laugh. He didn’t ask what our business was at the White House but did want to know where we lived. He said he knew someone there who’d worked in both JFK and RFK’s presidential campaigns. We knew the guy fairly well and Kennedy, who remarked on what a small world it is, remained at our table another 15 minutes and delighted us with some funny stories about who was now a mutual friend.
I shall fondly remember that evening long after Kennedy is gone. If he has the same experience as my sister he has about two years. She had the same operation he just had and within about 15 months the cancer was back, in a cluster of tumors that continued to grow.
I sympathized with his conidtion.. It’s sad that that is how he will leave life.
Unlike vile leftists, i’m glad we’re not ones to take glee in someone’s demise,.
I do have a very deep feeling for this generation proceeding ours. These people had a much stronger sense of service than my generation of consumers. I couldn’t disagree more with Kennedy and Byrds politics of socialism but both probably could have made 100 times more money in the private sector especially the past 20 years. Both had horrible missteps in their lives that a merciful God will judge in his own good time.
Ouch! Good title! A speedy recovery and speedy retirement to both Kennedy and Byrd.