I’m no particular fan of conservative columnist Robert Novak, nor am I a fan of liberal Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA), but both have found themselves in dire medical straits with recent diagnoses of serious brain tumors. I wish both of them the absolute best, and my prayers go out to them.
Novak, who announced his retirement from being a full-time columnist shortly after his diagnosis, returns with an interesting piece in today’s Washington Post about his condition and what has happened since things started going downhill for him in July. You may remember that shortly before his diagnosis people were condemning Novak as a criminal who had hit a pedestrian in downtown Washington with his Corvette (which he was known to drive a bit too fast) and tried to drive away without stopping. It turns out that Novak really didn’t see the man he hit, and was likely disoriented due to a tumor he didn’t even know he had until days later.
Most touchingly, Novak—who is ideologically unfriendly toward Senator Kennedy, and vice-versa—has found support from the Kennedy family, including the Senator. It is nice to see a couple of opinionated folks on opposite sides of the political fence put their differences aside and be human toward one another; something that happens fairly often, but rarely gets attention.