Hoping, Praying for the Liberal Lion

[babylonsister]

Hoping, Praying for the Liberal Lion
posted by John Nichols on 05/17/2008 @ 4:16pm



Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John McCain are agreed on one thing.

They are all worried about Ted Kennedy.

While cynicism is always appropriate when dealing with politicians, this concern is genuine.

Anyone who knows anything about the U.S. Senate knows why there is complete unity when it comes to hoping that Ted Kennedy will come through his current medical scare rested and ready to continue serving.

Since 1980, when he surrendered his presidential ambitions, Kennedy has devoted himself to the Senate. Even when Republicans ran the chamber, he was considered the essential player -- so much so that George W. Bush and Dick Cheney courted him. Despite all the pokes he took from right-wing interest groups and media, conservative Republicans have known the liberal lion as a man of the Senate who forges the compromises -- on judicial appointments, education and labor policy and just about everything else -- that end up having staying power.

So everyone in the Senate, Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives, gasped when the word came that Kennedy had suffered a seizure Saturday morning -- perhaps two seizures, depending on the report -- and was hospitalized in Boston.

more...

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/thebeat/321847

[Coexist]

1. .

[Olney Blue]

2. We need Senator Kennedy on that wall.

[Forkboy]

3. He's a big, big reason why I still call myself a Democrat.

He's one of the very few who has never fled from the term Liberal, and like me has instead embraced it. We need a bunch more like him.

[MADem]

4. He's going to be fine. And that's great news.

He sent out for a good fish dinner and watched the SOX game last night with some family members.

Seizures aren't all that uncommon in the elderly. Elderly onset epilepsy might be the culprit. Hell, all that coke and booze he did in his youth--and he admits to doing plenty-- might have contributed to it, or it could be just old age.

Everyone was scared shitless because the initial reports suggested stroke. The words "stroke-like symptoms" were repeated endlessly over the course of two or more hours before the "seizure" word was floated.

The really great news is that it was not a stroke. Seizures can be controlled with medication, careful attention to diet and lifestyle. A stroke can mean rehab and loss of intellectual capacity.

[DeepModem Mom]

5. K&R