banyon
06-02-2008, 07:59 PM
Byrd hospitalized after suffering a high fever
By J. Taylor Rushing
Posted: 06/02/08 09:12 PM [ET]
http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/byrd-hospitalized-after-suffering-a-high-fever-2008-06-02.html
Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W. Va.) was admitted to the hospital for the third time this year on Monday night, this time for overnight observation after suffering a high fever.
Byrd, 90, the longest-serving senator in U.S. history, was taken to a Virginia hospital in the early evening and will stay there overnight after feeling ill throughout the day, spokesman Jesse Jacobs said. Jacobs said Byrd had felt “lethargic and sluggish” throughout the day, but attended the lone Senate vote of the day, at 5:30 p.m. He was one of 14 senators to vote against debating a climate change bill.
Shortly thereafter, Byrd went home and reported the same symptoms to his caregiver. The caregiver discovered that Byrd had a fever and consulted the senator’s physician, who recommended a hospital visit, Jacobs said.
Byrd, who was elected in 1949 and now assumes the powerful Appropriations Committee chairmanship, was hospitalized briefly in February after a fall at his home and again in March for adverse reactions to medication.
Some Democrats publicly speculated his chairmanship duties should be distributed elsewhere, but the senator quieted his critics with strong leadership of an April 15 committee hearing on President Bush’s war supplemental measure.
Last month, Byrd brought spectators and reporters to a standstill with a dramatic, tearful speech for Sen. Edward Kennedy on the day the Massachusetts Democrat was diagnosed with a brain tumor.
Cheney Makes Incest Joke About West Virginians
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/06/02/cheney-makes-incest-joke_n_104761.html
Washington Post | Mary Ann Akers | June 2, 2008 04:59 PM
***UPDATE*** Akers reports that Cheney has now apologized for his West Virginia incest joke:
Vice President Dick Cheney has apologized through his spokeswoman for making an offhand joke during a speech at the National Press Club Monday stereotyping West Virginia as a state prone to incest.
Cheney spokeswoman Lea Anne McBride tells us, "The Vice President's offhand comment was not meant to hurt anyone. On reflection, he concluded that it was an inappropriate attempt at humor that he should not have made. The Vice President apologizes to the people of West Virginia for the inappropriate remark."
Mary Ann Akers of the Washington Post asks if West Virginia was just handed to the Democrats when Dick Cheney made an incest joke at West Virginians' expense:
Cheney was at the Press Club to congratulate this year's winners of the Gerald R. Ford Journalism Prize for Distinguished Reporting on the Presidency. During a question-and-answer session toward the end of the luncheon, someone asked the vice president about his wife Lynne Cheney's revelation on MSNBC last year that "Dick and Barack Obama are eighth cousins."
The questioner jokingly asked the vice president if he and Obama were going to have a family reunion, to which Cheney replied he would "have no objections" though he said he doubted Obama would want one - "certainly not before November."
Then came the offensive punch line. Cheney explained that during the course of researching his family lineage for Lynne's memoir "Blue Skies, No Fences" last year, he learned there were Cheneys on both his father's and his mother's side of the family. There was a Richard Cheney on his mother's side, the vice president said.
"So I had Cheneys on both sides of the family and we don't even live in West Virginia," Cheney quipped.
Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia was not amused:
"That a man who has ascended to the seat of Vice President of the United States would openly display such contempt and astounding ignorance toward his own countrymen is an insult to all Americans. Now that he or the Administration he represents no longer needs their vote, Mr. Cheney apparently feels that he is now free to mock and belittle the people of West Virginia. With his trademark arrogance, the Vice President even added 'You can say those things when you're not running for re-election.'"
"This pitiful comment is not entirely surprising when you consider the source. Vice President Cheney's words reflect the attitude of an administration and a party that says what they must to get elected and then turns their backs on those they promised to represent."
By J. Taylor Rushing
Posted: 06/02/08 09:12 PM [ET]
http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/byrd-hospitalized-after-suffering-a-high-fever-2008-06-02.html
Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W. Va.) was admitted to the hospital for the third time this year on Monday night, this time for overnight observation after suffering a high fever.
Byrd, 90, the longest-serving senator in U.S. history, was taken to a Virginia hospital in the early evening and will stay there overnight after feeling ill throughout the day, spokesman Jesse Jacobs said. Jacobs said Byrd had felt “lethargic and sluggish” throughout the day, but attended the lone Senate vote of the day, at 5:30 p.m. He was one of 14 senators to vote against debating a climate change bill.
Shortly thereafter, Byrd went home and reported the same symptoms to his caregiver. The caregiver discovered that Byrd had a fever and consulted the senator’s physician, who recommended a hospital visit, Jacobs said.
Byrd, who was elected in 1949 and now assumes the powerful Appropriations Committee chairmanship, was hospitalized briefly in February after a fall at his home and again in March for adverse reactions to medication.
Some Democrats publicly speculated his chairmanship duties should be distributed elsewhere, but the senator quieted his critics with strong leadership of an April 15 committee hearing on President Bush’s war supplemental measure.
Last month, Byrd brought spectators and reporters to a standstill with a dramatic, tearful speech for Sen. Edward Kennedy on the day the Massachusetts Democrat was diagnosed with a brain tumor.
Cheney Makes Incest Joke About West Virginians
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/06/02/cheney-makes-incest-joke_n_104761.html
Washington Post | Mary Ann Akers | June 2, 2008 04:59 PM
***UPDATE*** Akers reports that Cheney has now apologized for his West Virginia incest joke:
Vice President Dick Cheney has apologized through his spokeswoman for making an offhand joke during a speech at the National Press Club Monday stereotyping West Virginia as a state prone to incest.
Cheney spokeswoman Lea Anne McBride tells us, "The Vice President's offhand comment was not meant to hurt anyone. On reflection, he concluded that it was an inappropriate attempt at humor that he should not have made. The Vice President apologizes to the people of West Virginia for the inappropriate remark."
Mary Ann Akers of the Washington Post asks if West Virginia was just handed to the Democrats when Dick Cheney made an incest joke at West Virginians' expense:
Cheney was at the Press Club to congratulate this year's winners of the Gerald R. Ford Journalism Prize for Distinguished Reporting on the Presidency. During a question-and-answer session toward the end of the luncheon, someone asked the vice president about his wife Lynne Cheney's revelation on MSNBC last year that "Dick and Barack Obama are eighth cousins."
The questioner jokingly asked the vice president if he and Obama were going to have a family reunion, to which Cheney replied he would "have no objections" though he said he doubted Obama would want one - "certainly not before November."
Then came the offensive punch line. Cheney explained that during the course of researching his family lineage for Lynne's memoir "Blue Skies, No Fences" last year, he learned there were Cheneys on both his father's and his mother's side of the family. There was a Richard Cheney on his mother's side, the vice president said.
"So I had Cheneys on both sides of the family and we don't even live in West Virginia," Cheney quipped.
Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia was not amused:
"That a man who has ascended to the seat of Vice President of the United States would openly display such contempt and astounding ignorance toward his own countrymen is an insult to all Americans. Now that he or the Administration he represents no longer needs their vote, Mr. Cheney apparently feels that he is now free to mock and belittle the people of West Virginia. With his trademark arrogance, the Vice President even added 'You can say those things when you're not running for re-election.'"
"This pitiful comment is not entirely surprising when you consider the source. Vice President Cheney's words reflect the attitude of an administration and a party that says what they must to get elected and then turns their backs on those they promised to represent."