ted kennedy diagnosed with brain tumor

Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., has a malignant brain tumor, according to reports.

A cancerous brain tumor caused the seizure Sen. Edward M. Kennedy suffered over the weekend, doctors said Tuesday in a grim diagnosis for one of American politics' most enduring figures.

"He remains in good spirits and full of energy," the doctors for the 76-year-old Massachusetts Democrat said in a statement.

They said tests conducted after the seizure showed a tumor in Kennedy's left parietal lobe. Preliminary results from a biopsy of the brain identified the cause of the seizure as a malignant glioma, they said.

His treatment will be decided after more tests but the usual course includes combinations of radiation and chemotherapy.

Kennedy's Senate colleagues reacted with grief and worry for their friend.

“I want to take a moment to say how distraught and terribly shaken I am over the news of my dear friend, my dear, dear friend, Ted Kennedy," [Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.)] said. "Ted, Ted, my dear friend, I love you, and I miss you."

“We just don't feel like going on,” said Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.). “He is the center of the Senate, the heart, mind and soul. Just pray.” ...

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) delivered the news of the diagnosis at the Democrats’ weekly policy lunch. The usually boisterous session fell into “stunned silence,” Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) said.

At the Republicans’ lunch, Sen. John Warner (R-Va.) said, “We immediately all bowed our heads and said a prayer.”

Walking out of the Democratic lunch, a visibly shaken Sen. Pat Leahy (D-Vt.) said: "I am having a hard time remembering a day in my 34 years here when I felt this badly."

Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illi., frontrunner for the Democratic nomination in this year's presidential primary and the candidate endorsed by Kennedy, called the news "heartbreaking."

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., called Kennedy the "most effective" senator ever and said he was a "fighter" whose "courage and resolve are unmatched."

Let's keep the Kennedy family patriarch in our thoughts and prayers tonight.