Dodd Has Prostate Cancer
As if things weren't bad enough for poor ole Chris Dodd, the senior senator from Connecticut today at a press conference at 2pm in Hartford, Connecticut is expected to announce that he has early stage prostate cancer. The Banking Committee Chairman and defacto chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee in Ted Kennedy's absence will undergo a procedure and be laid up two-to-three weeks. Doctors caught the cancer early, though, and he is likely to make a full recovery. And, no, this is not expected to affect his race for reelection next year.
Update:
From Dodd's press conference:
Dodd says that he got some irregular results back from his annual physical in June and had a series of follow up tests where a biopsy revealed prostate cancer. Since then he's been reading books and consulting friends and colleagues, including Saxby Chambliss, John Kerry and Richard Shelby, who have been through the same thing.
“This is a very common form of cancer, one out of six males if they live long enough are diagnosed with this cancer,” Dodd said. “I'm gonna be fine in August. They caught this early.”
Dodd will have his prostate removed at Memorial Sloan Kettering in New York the week after next and will spend much of the recess working a light schedule from home. “I like to think if this is how many hours you put in with cancer I can't imagine what you'll do when you're cancer free,” said his wife, Jackie Dodd, at the press conference.
Preempting the first question, Chris Dodd interjected with a laugh: “Yes, I'm running! I'll be a little leaner and a little meaner, but I'm running.”
Dodd emphasized how lucky he is to have a health care plan that includes an annual physical to catch early problems like these – something he hopes every American will soon have when Congress passes health care reform. “The benefit of being in Congress and having a health care plan that is not available to everyone. One of the things that we've been fighting for and continue to fight for is to get national health care passed.”
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1
Thanks, Jay. Sorry to read about this and best wishes to him. But who runs the committee while he and Kennedy are out?
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2
"As if things weren't bad enough for poor ole Chris Dodd"
What a classy way to start a post about someone's cancer.
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3
Your lack of sensitivity in your reporting is mind-boggling
"poor ole "
You owe Senator Dodd and all older men an apology for this ageist remarklJoe Klein blogged about the embarassment of Lou Dobbs being an employee of Time Warner. You should be added to that embarassment list.
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4
Come on people. It's not like it's the end of the world - a lot of older people get some kind of cancer - and prostrate cancer is both one of the most common and one of the easier ones to treat if treated properly and early.
I don't see Jay's post as lacking sensitivity and I've actually had a close familymember die of prostate cancer. I really think you are being way to PC if you really get upset about this post.
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5
I be sorry t' be hearin' o' Senator Dodd's prostate cancer an' wish 'im th' best.
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'Ow fortunate 'e be tho', tha' whatever course o' treatment 'e an' 'is doctor determine t' be th' best be paid fer by th' American People, an' 'ow fortunate tha' 'e no' havin' t' be' worryin' 'bout bein' dropped an' havin' t' pay full price out-o'-pocket if th' treatment be gettin' expensive 'r considered "experimental."
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Would tha' we all had tha' kind o' access t' care.
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Arrgh. -
6
Guys:
My father had prostate cancer. Get over it. Fact is: Dodd's had a crappy year and this is just another crappy thing to add to it. As my father would say, if you don't have your health...As to where that leaves the committee: the Senate next week breaks for a four week recess. Dodd will have the surgery and during that break recover. His staff says he expects to be back to full steam by the time they reconvene in September.
JNS-
6.1
...thanks for the commitee update. For the record, I didn't criticize your post.
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6.2
SG, you have no room to talk. You thought the Jena Six assault justified--so spare us your personal story.
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As for JNS, I think Dodd has had a crappy year because Dodd has inflicted wounds upon himself.
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7
Thank you, Jay, for your lighthearted post on Senator Dodd having cancer. You might enjoy this:
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8
Guys -- this is a political blog, would you prefer I report the news without any context whatsoever of Dodd's status? Chris Dodd, chairman of the Banking Committee, has cancer. Period. End of story.
Cancer victims are the first to say: don't pity me, treat me the way you would anyone else.
JNS-
8.1
Aye lassie, tha' would'a been more appropriate than th' dismissive-soundin' snark ye were beginnin' wi.
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Funny 'ow context be somethin' ye all seem t' be willin' t' use when it be suitin' ye, an' torpedo when it no' be...
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YARR! -
8.2
An' can ye be explainin' t' me how "...poor ole' Chris Dodd..." be considered contextual in th' first place?
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YARR! -
8.3
@JNS: Chris Dodd, chairman of the Banking Committee, has cancer. Period.
Maybe that would have been enough?
C'mon, Jay - We're just having some good ole fun at your good ole expense...
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8.4
Excuse me JNS but thats a bunch of bullsh*t. You sound like the person who says they have a black friend and thus they can't be a racist. I lost my Mom to cancer and my father is a prostate cancer survivor. Does that mean I will never say something insenstive about cancer for the rest of my life? Hell no.
That was a fippant ass ed way to introduce a post about Chris Dodd revealing that he has prostate cancer. That you can't just apologize and correct it and moreover try to justify it in such a hamfisted manner says a hell of a lot more about you than it does the people criticizing you. If anybody needs to get over anything its you who need to get over yourself!
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8.5
Just to be clear. I wasn't offended I just thought it was classless.
Dana Milbank -in an oh so cute sideways way- called the Secretary of State a (B word that wouldn't pass the editors here) but maybe he thinks his mom, sister, cousin is one so it's okay.
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9
Silly me for being offended by a joke about cancer..
Poor lil' Jay Jay ,, couldn't even find it in her little brain to apologize to us pore ole people who didn't fin it funny. or who don unnerstan enlightened people like Jay
Regards to Sarah , Winky, winky -
10
Jay Newton-Small:
My mom died of cancer (not that having some experience with the disease is prerequisite for judging humor, sensitivity or carelessness), and I don't have any problem whatsoever with your language.
In fact I think that you don't need to watch your language whatsoever in terms of sensitivity. The problems I see with your language all have to do with uncritical acceptance of Beltway CW.
I don't have a problem with your use of the term "fiscal conservatives" in conjunction with the Blue Dogs because it may hurt the raw wounds of those with financial problems, I have a problem with that term because it is factually inaccurate, except as a statement of fact about what Blue Dogs claim themselves to be. One can't truthfully claim to be "fiscally conservative" simultaneous with a record of having supported the deficit-expanding Bush tax cuts, to name but one example.
So please continue not to adhere to the dictates of faux solemnity when it comes to the language of your posts, Jay Newton-Small, and perhaps worry a bit more about whether you're reporting the claims of politicians as facts and vice versa.
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11
I was completely unfazed by the tone of the original post. I didn't take it as being insensitive in the least
The in-thread defenses of it OTOH. - Yikes.
Perhaps we should all sit down and share a beer......
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11.1
I'll have a poor Ol' Milwaukee...
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11.2
I'm not a beer drinker (don't like the taste) but will do shots: vodka, wild turkey, cherry bombs, even jaegerbombs, etc.
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11.3
Whiskey-Coke, tall, please. And can someone put something on the jukebox?
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11.4
I'll have a mudslide milkshake topped off with a couple of Somas instead of cherries. If there's one good thing about getting older and having some back problems....it's that the drugs are medication, prescribed and cheap as all get out.
Like grandma always said "They're small. Take two.".
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12
JNS: I don't have a problem with the context at all. But I do think the tone in your lead "As if things weren't bad enough for poor ole Chris Dodd" is a bit flippant. But I'm still working up the outrage.
But as SZ touches on, when you say this: "would you prefer I report the news without any context whatsoever of Dodd's status?" I'm struck by the selective dedication to context.
e.g. That health care legislation can be discussed without the principal actors' campaign contributors being acknowledged. That say a trillion bucks considered for benefit of the people is never juxtaposed with the CBO est. of $2.4 trillion it'll take to complete our wars in Afghan/Iraq.
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13
Speaking of context...
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Ryan Powers: "The business of influence and access peddling in Washington is often thinly veiled in pseudo-respectable claims that industry groups donate to candidates who they believe are predisposed to agree with their public policy priorities. But I think it is more accurate to say that industries donate to individuals who they perceive as predisposed to being bought."
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IOW, Johns always know who the prositutes are.
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http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2009/07/health-insurance-industrys-strategic-bribery.php -
14
From Bruce Dixon's "Top Ten Ways To Tell Your President & His Party Aren't Fighting For Health Care For Everybody"
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1.Their plan doesn't cover the uninsured till at least 2013.
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2.Their "public option" isn't Medicare, won't bring costs down and will only cover about 10 million people.
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3.The president and his party have already caved in to the drug companies on reimporting Canadian drugs, on negotiating drug prices downward and on generics.
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4.The president and his party have received more money from private insurers and the for-profit health care industry than even Republicans, with the president alone taking $19 million in the 2008 election cycle alone, more than all his Repubican, Democratic and independent rivals combined.
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5.The president's plan, and those of Republicans and Democratic blue dogs too, will require families to purchase health insurance policies from private insurers.
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6.The president's plan, and those of Republicans and Democratic blue dogs too, could force you to buy junk insurance.
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7.The president's plan, as well as those of Democratic "blue dogs" and Republicans, are to be funded in part with cuts in Medicare and Medicaid.
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8.The president, with the cooperation of corporate media and the Republicans is trying to make the argument about himself instead of a discussion on the merits of his policy.
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9.The president and his party, and the corporate media have spent more time and energy silencing and excluded the advocates of single payer health care, mostly the president's own supporters, than they have fighting blue dogs and Republicans.
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10.Despite the president's own admission that only a single payer health care system will deliver what Americans want, he and the leaders of his party insist that Medicare For All, HR 676, us utterly off the table. -
15
Good thing for the Senator that he's got taxpayer-funded health insurance. It's a shame that the rest of us dumb poor bastards aren't considered worthy enough of decent health care coverage.
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16
Come on, let's get that outrage thing going again, it was fun. Isn't there anyone out there who is outraged anymore? How about this crass unfeeling comment (by John Royal) about his insurance? That's gotta be getting under someone's skin. (Sorry John, don't really think it is crass, just tying to stir things up around here.).
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16.1
I'm all outraged out. Maybe it's because I think things are so f*%ked up already that it really takes something special to get my hackles up. Jay's comment didn't upset me at all. Dodd's cancer is in an early stage and treatable. If it had been late stage and untreatable, I probably would have thought it was tasteless.
Of course I'm a crude person too. If Limbaugh would have had cancer, I'd have bought a cake and celebrated. The world would be better off without scum like that. I've celebrated people's deaths before and I'm sure I'll do it again. I never pass up a good excuse for a party.
I'm not a fan of Dodd, but I have nothing against him either. Jay's post just didn't seem out of line to me. If Coulter, Beck, O'Reilly, Limbaugh, Cheney or Hannity buys the farm, please skip over my posts. They're going to be tasteless in the extreme. I've always felt that when a pr!ck dies, they're just dead pr!cks.
Nothing outrageous here. Move along. ; ).
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