Not a good diagnosis at all.

End of an era.

Ironically, the country now has the greatest opportunity in a generation of enacting the most important social welfare measure in Teddy's agenda, the one that he and we could never get done during his tenure: UHC.

Visions of "Senior Senator" dancing in Kerry's head...

This is bad, very bad.  Bad for Kennedy and his family, in dealing with news to which I have unfortunately been witness.  And bad for Massachusetts.  Politics in my state will be higgledy-piggledy once Kennedy faces the need to retire, and it will be a nasty fight.  In the meatime, we will be missing out on a statesman with a ton of clout for the state.

Dammit.

Sad loss to bear. May he pass peacefully and with dignity.

Tomeg, I read he can last up to 5 years with this if it is not an aggressive type. For a 76 year old man, 81 is a good life span with plenty of time to get his affairs in order. Here is hoping that he gets that chance.

Blackton: You are the most humane voice out here, with your compassion sometimes even extending to the opposition.

2008 marks the end of the GOP hegemony and end of the Kennedy legacy. end of the kulrukampf that dominated the last 40 years.

George Packer has a superb piece in this week's New Yorker on the end of 40 years of GOP hegemony.

www.newyorker.com/.../080526fa_fact_packer

Blackie, 81 is a good life span for a 46 or 56 or maybe even a 66 year old man.

Whether we'll see it that way at 76 remains to be seen.

...all the best to Kennedy. Much remains to be seen....and let's hope he can and wants to remain active.

I was startled on Sat that when I heard the news, I nearly cried. Today, with even worse news, I feel sort of stunned. Trying to imagine the Senate without Ted Kennedy, who unlike his brothers, was actually a good Senator, is just beyond me. I was 3 when he was first elected and he has been there my entire life. I still remember that Bork was voted down primarily because Teddy came out swinging and Not Me Clarence was voted in primarily because Teddy, due to his own personal excesses, never took up the flag against him.

And, that he continued to function and contribute after both his brothers were murdered has always amazed me. If it were me, I think I would have said screw it, taken my milliions and gone and lived on some tropical island with a beautiful tropical babe for every day of the week. Ted is a better man than I and he will be missed.

One of the most effective senators in our history, and a great man.

Assuming retirement: Senator Meehan? Senator Frank? Senator Patrick? Senator Mumbles? (That last one seems like a stretch.) Or perhaps Senator Ramirez (D-Mannyland)?

Senator Frank would be a good bet in this century to rival Kennedy's achievements in the Senate in the last century.

This is not good.  Prayers to the Senator and his family. I have a bad sense that he has less than a year to live

Obviously Kennedy is  reviled by the right.  And some of their criticisms  of Kennedy's behavior the night  Mary Jo Kopechne drowned are legit.

But I think the Senator has changed, and improved.  He is a better man than he was 40 years ago. And he has  been a wonderful senator for the state of Massachusetts.

He will be missed

I cried today.  

It is very hard to picture this country without him in it and I do pray he has that five year window.  I'll be honest: I lost a close friend to this exact thing last year, for her it was brutal and quick.  

He is the most credible voice there is on progressive issues.  He's also a living legend, an archetype.

I read a Pete Hamill article in New York magazine today at lunch on Bobby Kennedy and the day he was assasinated in LA, on the day of the last primary before the convention (which he had to win or else after beig trounced in Oregon. He won).  

Hamill writes of watching two black men throwing pool chairs into the pool in rage after it happened.  Another pounding a wall until his fist was bloody.  Rosy Grier (Jaunty, Tep, I know you know who HE is) sobbing.  Not sure why I was drawn to the article, I just was.  In addition to two brothers, Edward K also buried his beautiful polite prince of a nephew, his reckless brilliant cousin.  

I read again Bobby's spontaneous speech given the night of MLK Jr's assasination.  I cried some more.

When someone says "Lliberal Lion", who else could possible pop up besides that face?

Here's the article:

nymag.com/.../47041

For an updated definition of "no dry eye in the house," watch the 2008 Democratic National Convention when Senator Edward Kennedy, D-Mass, comes out on stage, to an ovation louder and longer than anyone there will ever again witness, and approaches the microphone. Which, something tells me, nothing as trivial as some mere malignant punk-ass brain tumor will prevent him from doing.

Shit, just thinking about it and my eyes are no longer dry.

williamyard,

I've thought the same thing. I feel guilty even thinking about this in political terms, but a call for party unity from Ted Kennedy in August is going to resonate so strongly that the phrase "a Voice From On High" will have to be retired.

I am kind of in awe of the man simply for living to age 76, given how excessive his drinking used to be and how very large he got. There just aren't that many healthy old men who are fat - particularly elderly fat men who have had chronic back problems for 45+ years.

This is a bummer, but I am going to do my best to not jump to conclusions. The guy can fight. He's always been a guy I've taken for granted, which is too bad because his record is too extraordinary to do that.

Also, once, he talked a Marblehead policeman out of giving me a parking ticket, and for that I'll always be grateful.

Coincidentally Van the Man came on the iPod: You can't stop us, on the road to freedom. You can't stop us, 'cause our eyes can see. Men with insight, men in granite. Knights in armor, intent on chivalry...

Years ago at S.F. State my professor of English, Leo Litwak, was discussing D.H. Lawrence. (Leo would subsequently win the O. Henry for "The Eleventh Edition" in TriQuarterly.)  A fellow student groused about Lawrence's archetypal limitations, his redundancy. Leo thought for a minute, then suggested, to paraphrase, "Do not judge a man by his weaknesses. Judge him by his strengths." It is a generous and difficult strategy and a wise one, time has taught me.

Teddy Kennedy failed at chivalry on one particular evening and, by all accounts, in other attempts, fueled by who knows what assortment of demons. Meanwhile he remained a knight in armor, intent, at least. I judge him by his strengths.

Even chained by the gods and gnawed by raptors, Prometheus was a bad motherfucker.

Though much is taken, much abides; and though

We are not now that strength which in old days

Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are;

One equal temper of heroic hearts,

Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will

To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

Hold on, gang. This looks really bad, and really bad it is, but the mortality is not quite 100% Gliomas can be managed with radiation, chemo, and even resection if they're accessible and haven't gone too crazy by the time of diagnosis. This guy will have the best neurologists, neurooncologists, and radiation oncologists in the world fighting for him, and they will be aggressive in their management, if possible, and if he lets them. And let's remember that we're talkin' about Teddy Frippin' Kennedy, here.

If there's one thing we know about Teddy, it's that he's one tough sonofabitch.

Even Teddy Kennedy couldn't kill him.

Something tells me he hasn't thrown in the towel just yet. I hope he kicks its ass.

I still haven't gotten over the loss of Chris Gaffney -- the best musician and songwriter no one's heard of -- who was diagnosed with liver cancer in February and dead in April. I think of my grandfather, a lifelong Democrat who died of a heart attack on Election Night 1976 not knowing whether his candidate had beaten Ford. Whatever his fate may be, I hope that if Obama is to be our next president, Senator Kennedy lives long enough to know it.

And, though my faith does not extend to any certainty about the next life, I have to believe that when the time comes, two admiring brothers and some recently departed colleagues will be there to welcome Senator Kennedy.

Hey, list time: Best American political leaders never to serve as president. Henry Clay and Bob LaFollette,obviously. Daniel Webster? J.P. Altgeld? Hubert Humphrey? However one rounds out the top-ten list, I think Ted Kennedy has to be on it.

"If there's one thing we know about Teddy, it's that he's one tough sonofabitch. Even Teddy Kennedy couldn't kill him"

Truer words were never spoken. I'll quote you in a toast tonight, sullydog.

Rhubarbs,

I'm going to suggest Al Gore (a recent, easy, cheap shot) and Sam Houston (because, as he usually was, I am a bit drunk right now). Sam is *definitely* one of our most underrated Americans.

wandrey

Yes, Rosy Grier and Rafer Johnson were with Bobby that night. My parents were huge Bobby supporters and I remember we all went to bed before the winner was called. My dad used to be out of the house at 5:00 a.m. - workin' class folks don't get much sleep - and as was my custom, I raced outside to get the LA Times. As I picked it up and saw the picture and headline, I ran straight into my parent's room and as she was dressing, I just shoved it into her hands. She saw the paper and then just went to the bed and started to cry. It was an image that I have never forgotten.

My grandmother - Petra - came running in and soon, she was crying. I remember that morning like it was yesterday.

Teddy isn't gone but is sure feels like the end of a long era. Many memories.

Chris Gaffney? Didn't he play with Dave Alvin? He died? Shit...

Ted Kennedy IS Massachusetts. My mom's lived here in the Boston area for most of her life, and Ted's been a senator since she was six. It's going to be very strange to have someone else occupy that seat. I really wish him the best -- he's done so much for so long. The only man to vote for the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and against the Iraq war.

As long as they're only talking about a basic glioma Kennedy has a fighter's chance.  If they start using the  word "glioblastoma" it becomes time to beseech a good death.  

Could this be any more of a torch-passing year?

sullydog, I hate to nitpick, and as your fellow medico, I do agree that at the time of diagnosis cancer prognoses are very rarely 100% fatal, BUT I have just had a look on UpToDate--a truly excellent product of Kennedy's Bay State's  information economy--and I have learned that two of the most significant negative prognostic factors for malignant gliomas are age >60 and incomplete surgical resection.  The NY Times story on TK's diagnosis seems to indicate that he's being offered chemoradiotherapy but not surgery.  

Without knowing all the relevant factors, just knowing these two facts, his age of 76 and the lack of even partial resection of the tumor, the median survival for patients like him is just over a year and the probability that he'll still be alive in 2 years is no better than 20%.

cspencef, they're not talking about a low-grade glioma, they're talking about a "malignant glioma" i.e. an anaplastic glioma or a glioblastoma multiforme, better known as a GBM.

Chan wrote, "Blackie, 81 is a good life span for a 46 or 56 or maybe even a 66 year old man. Whether we'll see it that way at 76 remains to be seen."

Too true.  

My father was 76 last year when he received his terminal cancer diagnosis.  He said, "I always hoped I'd make it to 85.  There are still a few things I'd like to accomplish."   He died four months later.  In his final days he was resigned to his fate, but he was profoundly unhappy.  Death is a bitch no matter how old you are.

Well, then, for a 75-yr-old man with a GBM, no one should invest a great deal in extreme optimism.  Where are you getting that?  I'm not seeing any news which puts it in that form (glioblastoma multiforme)...

For those so inclined, the Senator's Massachusetts snail mail address is Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, 2400 JFK Building, Boston, MA 02203.

There's also a "best wishes" email form on his site (kennedy.senate.gov), but I know when I'm sick I always like a little treeware. I picked up a card at Walgreens last night on the way home, the SH and I signed it and she took it down to our mailbox. USPS should be picking it up right about now.

After watching the clip of Robert Byrd break down on the Senate floor, sobbing, "Teddy, Teddy, I love you, I miss you," sending a card seemed the least we could do.  We have never met the man, but we are Americans, and therefore he has helped us.

Hopefully they will have to surround the Senator with piles and piles of cards, like at the climax of "Miracle on 34th Street" when the judge is inundated by letters to Santa from thousands of children who don't know any better, and who know what is best.

sorry if I wasn't clear.  In all the reports, his doctors have referred to it as a "malignant glioma" which makes it EITHER an anaplastic glioma OR a GBM.