Just outside the right field foul line
Before the Official Diagnosis last week, I was sweating the possibility of some much, much worse outcome, including pancreatic cancer, which has a five-year survival rate of something like five percent. Not good.
So I wish Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg all the best as she takes on this nasty disease. It helps that it was caught at Stage 1, which boosts her chances fivefold. And I hope she outlasts Sen. Jim Bunning (R-KY), who came up with this noxious business:
During a wide-ranging 30-minute speech on Saturday at the Hardin County Republican Party’s Lincoln Day Dinner, Bunning said he supports conservative judges “and that’s going to be in place very shortly because Ruth Bader Ginsburg … has cancer.”
“Bad cancer. The kind that you don’t get better from,” he told a crowd of about 100 at the old State Theater.
“Even though she was operated on, usually, nine months is the longest that anybody would live after (being diagnosed) with pancreatic cancer,” he said.
I am not quite sure of the five-year political survival rate for diarrhea of the mouth, but I hope it’s way low.
(Via Wizbang.)
Addendum: Bunning has apologized.
fillyjonk »
23 February 2009 · 9:00 am
Wow, that’s really low. I hope karma, in the form of being voted out of office in the next election, hits him bad.
Did people boo him for saying that? I hope they did.
Tatyana »
23 February 2009 · 9:32 am
That was rather stupid (what you expect of a politician? not tact, surely).
But the real culprit is the life-long sinecures for justices.
Our legal system peculiarly resembles French aristocracy, in this regard.
When I was involved in designing Kent county courthouse (DE), I was stunned reading survey of existing conditions of the site: on one side of the street there was an existing old courthouse, on the other – mansions (not mere houses) occupied by hereditary judges families. They got born, grow up in Yale, come back and become as judges – just like their grandfathers. At least in France it was possible to purchase a “patent” of a nice cushy workplace.
More democratic.
McGehee »
23 February 2009 · 11:06 am
Even putting aside the crassness of Bunning’s emission, there’s the small problem he seems to have over what it takes to get a more conservative Supreme Court justice.
Hint: It doesn’t generally happen when the president is a leftist Democrat and the majorities in Congress make him look like a moderate.
paulsmos »
23 February 2009 · 3:24 pm
As a consistent supporter of abortion rights, ruthie ought to consider herself in her 25th trimester put an end to her existence. In the abortionist’s lexicon she’s just a “parasite” that can/should be easily sucked from the womb of the body politic. Or if you prefer Obamalamadingdongs stimulus musings; her diagnosis should be a matter of scrutiny to ascertain if it is financially viable to maintain her life. Wouldn’t want to waste precious resources on some aged useless feeder when someone younger with much greater chance for a good outcome is deprived now would we?
Still, Bunning is an idiot.
CGHill »
23 February 2009 · 3:30 pm
25th trimester? That makes her 8. I’ve seen a few eight-year-olds I wanted to drown, but this seems a bit harsh.
paulsmos »
23 February 2009 · 6:13 pm
oops…228th perhaps?