Reply #12: This in USA today.....regarding Kennedy's health push..... [View All]

[a kennedy]

Kennedy set for major push on health bill

WASHINGTON — When he endorsed Barack Obama for president in January, Sen. Edward Kennedy said it was because his young colleague "understands what Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. called 'the fierce urgency of now.' "

Ten months later, the haunting quote that Obama made a theme of his campaign holds an even deeper significance for Kennedy.

Though battling incurable brain cancer, the 76-year-old Massachusetts Democrat returned to Capitol Hill this week. He's a man on a mission that so far has proved impossible: enactment of comprehensive health care legislation that would provide coverage for the nation's estimated 47 million people who don't have health insurance.

"I am looking forward to working with Barack Obama on health care," Kennedy said Monday as he headed to a luncheon with his staff after a six-month absence. The senator leaned on a silver-headed cane but otherwise looked hale, his trademark white mane intact despite continuing cancer treatments.

Kennedy's reappearance six months to the day after he had the seizure that led to his brain cancer diagnosis sets up a potentially dramatic race against time as he seeks to cajole the notoriously slow-moving Senate into delivering the capstone of his four-decade legislative career.

full araticle: <http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2008-11-20-Kennedy_N.htm>