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US liberal icon Edward 'Ted' Kennedy suffers seizure (Roundup)
May 18, 2008, 2:52 GMT
Washington - Veteran Democratic Senator Edward 'Ted' Kennedy was in hospital Saturday after suffering a seizure, triggering concern about one of the country's most famous politicians and champions of the poor.
The symptoms were originally reported to be those of a stroke, but Kennedy spokeswoman Melissa Wagoner said in a statement that it was a seizure.
Kennedy, the liberal lion of the Democratic Party, age 76, was taken by helicopter to Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, broadcast reports said.
'It appears that Senator Kennedy experienced a seizure this morning,' Wagoner said. 'He is undergoing a battery of tests ... to determine the cause of the seizure. Senator Kennedy is resting comfortably, and it is unlikely we will know anything more for the next 48 hours.'
The junior senator from Massachusetts, former presidential candidate John Kerry, and Kennedy's niece Caroline Kennedy, daughter of slain president John F Kennedy, visited him at hospital but did not speak to media afterwards.
CNN reported that Kerry stayed 45 minutes at the hospital.
According to a report by the Cape Cod Times, Kennedy was rushed by ambulance at 8:19 am from the family compound in Hyannisport, Massachusetts, to Cape Cod Hospital after falling ill.
He spent two hours in the local emergency room before the decision was made to transfer Kennedy by helicopter to the Boston hospital.
Kennedy is the last surviving brother of President John F Kennedy, who was assassinated in November 1963. Another older brother, Robert Kennedy, was assassinated in June 1968 while seeking the Democratic Party presidential nomination. Yet another, Joseph Jr, died as a US combat pilot in 1944.
News of Ted Kennedy's illness rippled through the US political world, with presidential candidates expressing concern.
Presumptive centre-right Republican candidate Senator John McCain, who has served with Kennedy for years and often been at loggerheads with the liberal giant, called his colleague a 'legendary lawmaker whose role in the US Senate cannot be overstated.'
Senator Hillary Clinton, still struggling to keep head above water in her own fight for the Democratic presidential nomination, referred to Kennedy's persistent fight for the poor.
'Nobody has fought harder to make sure that everybody got good health care,' Clinton said in broadcast remarks.
The Massachusetts Senator, long an icon of the liberal wing of the Democratic Party, most recently made headlines in late January when he and niece Caroline publicly endorsed Barack Obama's bid for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination.
The move cut the rug out from under the candidacy of Clinton, who along with husband, ex-president Bill Clinton, had become close friends of the fabled clan during the 1990s.
Kennedy himself once had presidential ambitions, but he became bogged down in the legacy of the fatal 1969 accident at Chappaquiddick, Massachusetts, that claimed the life of a woman passenger in a car he drove off a bridge.
Kennedy swam to safety but the woman drowned, and Kennedy later pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of the accident.
Nonetheless, his influence remains huge on the US political scene, where he has used his 45-year seniority in the senate to protect the disenfranchised and advocate for the elderly, disabled, immigrants, workers and civil
Kennedy has served as senator from Massachusetts since 1962 when he was elected to the post vacated after his brother John became president.
He was the youngest of nine children of Joseph P Kennedy and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy. He is a graduate of Harvard University and the University of Virginia Law School.
He makes his home in Hyannisport, with his second wife Victoria Reggie Kennedy, and her children from a previous marriage, Curran and Caroline Raclin. He had three other children with his ex-wife Joan - Kara, Edward Jr and Patrick.
Kennedy, the second longest-serving senator, is the senior Democrat on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee in the Senate and also belongs to the Judiciary Committee, where he is the senior Democrat on the Immigration Subcommittee, and on the Armed Services Committee, where he is the senior Democrat on the Seapower Subcommittee.
He is also a member of the Congressional Joint Economic Committee and the Congressional Friends of Ireland, and a trustee of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC.
© Deutsche Presse-AgenturCOMMENT
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Older Talkback
page: 1
an orgasm
Making money selling booze is far better than making the family fortune dealing with the Nzis, like the Bush family did.
If you're refering to pre-war america, you'd have a long list of those who dealt with Nazi's, just like the Clintons dealt with the communists in China, today (try the Roosevelts). When you think about it, that is not much of an indictment, but then again, when you take campaign finds and then sell Most Favored Nation status for them, like Clinton did for China, I guess the Bush record does not look too bad, eh?
Then again, Mr. Bush was never a mobster like Kennedy's Dad, old Joe. This is how he got Sam Giancana to fix the 1960 election: He got Frank Sinatra as the go-between, to get ol Sam to stuff the ballot boxes.
Boy, did it work.
You know, when it comes to stealing elections, those republicans could learn a thing or two from America's first family...and I mean 'Family'!
Bada Bing
not: 'If you're refering to pre-war america'
I was referring to the war years. That blows you and your bloody bada ding out of the water. Go suck a lemon followed by some sour grapes, moron.
Yes, I`m definitely becoming a fan of yours ; will you marry me ?
It`s OK these Islamic and Democratic turd-balls making coarse and insulting remarks about your wisdom, but they are obviously completely devoid of any serious knowledge or finesse. Democrats can only talk the language of the masses and Islamists too obsessed with becoming martyrs.
Kennedy`s old man actually signed his beloved Jack`s death warrant by dealing with the Mafia to rig the Presidential election. Even then, lovable Jack only just scraped through by the seat of his pants. Without the Mafia, he would have lost.
Then when the Kennedy duo got tough on the Mafia later, an immaculate plan was hatched to bump poor old Jack off - that`s what you get for ratting on Cosa Nostra. Still, look on the bright side, it gave Marilyn Monroe a rest. She could at last close her legs.
The left can never stand the scrutiny they pile on the right.
Consider Ted Kennedy - he f--king killed a girl in a drunken stupor by drowning her.
Senator Bob Packwood put his hand on a reporter's ass and was drummed out of the senate for it. In how many other cases can we see the dems giving their leaders a pass on stuff the republicans would have to endure some kind of Jihad.
Watergate is a good example. Nixon was told,after the fact, about a crime and for that was forced to resign. He had no real involvement, and only hid the facts, which is anyone's right to not speak to the authorities under the 5th amendment, unless granted immunity.
Clinton, by comparison, gets up in front of US federal judge and tells a bald face lie, plain and simple. You and I would be in jail. Louis Libby was convicted for no other reason than it was their word against his, for something that was never a crime to begin with!
What happens to Clinton?
Nothing. He gets a pass.
Bush is another great example. He is pilloried for some kind of connection to the oil companies...
When Clinton sold influence to AMOCO and greenlighted EVERY oil merger in his administration!
Enron - Bush was pilloried for it while Clinton and other dems sold influence to them just a few years before.
So now we have this urban legend about the Bush family to throw crap on GW, while the Kennedy's get a pass for rigging elections, but it was Bush who stole an election???? What did he do, stick it under his coat?.
It's the double standard we object to.
Really,SP4...
I'm going to spell this out for you. President A (I'm not naming any names here) Helps the economy and makes the US a safer and more respected place. But president A also has an affair and lies about it. president B Destroys the US's economy and credibility and gets us into a war in which we spend trillions of dollars and thousands of lives. which one deserves to be impeached???
talk about a double standard
SP4
Yep ! I`m now a committed follower - together we`ll bash that Belgium Bum.
Look for the '$'
PS
The only call to fame Belgium has, is that it provides a huge resting place for the tens of thousands of American, Canadian and British young men, who saved Belgium TWICE from becoming a permanent part of the Greater Germany.
Also they provide the symbol of the POPPY from Flanders Fields as a
unique lapel emblem for Veterans Day or Armistice Day.
SP4 has the same sick, demented view of reality as Bush, and both should be executed.
Answer
The one that actually broke a law.
By the way, we have not spent trillions on the war. That is libnazi hokum. Besides, you are going to fight it sooner or later anyways, pick your time and place.
The fact is the Bush economy made more jobs, raised more tax money, and grew the economy more than Clinton's ever did. He also did it while lowering taxes.
Bush also never:
Perpetrated a White Water
Tried to cover it up afterwards,
Obtained 500 FBI files on his political enemies
Sold influence and MFN status to China for DNC funds
Sold influence to AMOCO for political donations
Pardoned Puerto Rican terrorists for Hillary's New York run
Let Osama Bin Laden walk
Tit out on peacekeeping in Somalia.
Sold a Pardon to Marc Rich for DNC funds
Used his foundation to sell his wifes senate vote
You know, you're right Dan...Clinton DID do more than Bush!
page: 1
HOPE IT HURTSMay 18th, 2008 - 11:21:09
Lovely ! Now the fat insignificant jerk can reminisce on the girl he murdered, whilst gawping at the hospital ceiling.
A member of the infamous Kennedy clan who made their money on illicit booze during the prohibition years, now all their ill-gotten fortunes will not mean a rusty dime.
ADIOS Ted, make it a full set and match.
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