Arlen Specter: Bush Acted Like My Cancer Could Be Contagious

Arlen Specter's new book, "Never Give In: Battling Cancer in the Senate," chronicles the long-time Pennsylvania senator's struggle with an advanced case of Hodgkin's disease. During an appearance on "Hardball" with Chris Matthews Thursday, Specter brought along a photo of himself shaking President Bush's hand to illustrate one of the lessons of his book.

In the photo a bald and visibly ill Specter can be seen shaking hands with a clearly reluctant Bush, who noticeably keeps his distance with his arm fully extended. "He's keeping you at arms length," Matthews laughed. Why was he doing so? Specter offered several theories of what might have been going through Bush's mind at that moment, for example: "He's the chairman, I guess I got to shake his hand."

Watch the clip.

MSNBC

Comments

[WUC]

12:16 PM on 04/05/2008

There is no place for fear on the war on cancer.

President Nixon during his January 1971 State of the Union address said: "The time has come in America when the same kind of concentrated effort that split the atom and took man to the moon should be turned toward conquering this dread disease. Let us make a total national commitment to achieve this goal."

Since that time we are see increases in many types of cancers to include pediatric cancer patients that are being diagnosed at a rate of two class rooms full of children or approximately 46+ children every school day in this country.

Everyday more than 1,500 men, women and children die of cancer in the U.S.

In the book The Secret War on Cancer, author Devra Davis, who heads up the world’s first Center on Environmental Oncology at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute points out that while American’s today are living longer and better, we are also seeing the growth in chronic diseases, like cancer and neurological problems. The question of the combined effects of radiation and small doses of chemicals on our health over the long term is generally not being asked by those in positions to set standards for such materials.

While the cure for cancer is critical we must ask lawmakers to work to prevent cancer to include reducing the known and suspected exposures linked with cancer.

Bill Couzens Founder, Lesscancer.org

[rkx13]

11:54 PM on 04/04/2008

At several times during the last 8 years all the hopes of the nation depended on Arlen Specter.
He would make good anti bush speech on torture, prison, civil rights, cheney , NSA or war .
He is like a big dog with a big bark that never gets the courage to leave the porch.
How many times were we disappointed by Arlen Specter and his hearings. Give him a break for brain cancer, his heart ,his hodkins and all that, but this was the destruction of a nation.

[MrJoyboy]

02:09 PM on 04/04/2008

Hard to believe Bush would act like that. He's so scientifically knowledgable.

[Seattlelite]

01:46 PM on 04/04/2008

Well at least he didn't shake his hand then use sanitizer to kill the "germs" like he did with Sen. Obama.

[Arguman]

01:20 PM on 04/04/2008

Why is this news now? Specter already talked about this picture on the Daily Show a few weeks ago

[GeoLee]

12:46 PM on 04/04/2008

I watched the interview twice last night and that did not bother me nearly as much as both his and Chris' advice to all the rest of us about how to fight the disease: never give in and get second opinions, etc. How great it is to be told about what our medical options SHOULD be by some senator who, thanks to your taxes and mine, gets the best medical care money can buy and the ability to get second opinions using our dollars for healthcare that costs him about 254 dollars a month while mine is twice that and has all kinds of restrictions I did not have 10 years ago preventing me from even having the diagnostic tests necessary without haivng to jump through hoops I am sure neither of them even understand. All the statistics around show the higher your income, the better chance of surviving the deadly disease he, and fellow Republican candidate for President, John McCain, have had. Most of us reading the article would probably be dead with our medical plans' restrictions if we had the cancers any of the three have lived through.

[knowhelpnow]

01:41 PM on 04/04/2008

Maybe if these guys gave us all the medical benefits they have we could make it too.

[RonNYC]

12:43 PM on 04/04/2008

I saw the interview.

Bush is a redneck moron and of course he was put off by poor arlen.

[trafficguy]

01:41 PM on 04/04/2008

Bush is not a redneck, he is a coward who likes to pretend (and likes other people to think) he is a tough guy. But make no mistake about Bush is a coward, not a redneck.

[izzat7]

12:18 PM on 04/04/2008

Don't feel bad Spector,my skin crawls whenever I see Chimpys face.

[rollingdivision]

11:44 AM on 04/04/2008

Bush's actions in interacting with a visibly seriously ill person are not unusual. Many of us act in a noticeably different way when we are with someone who is visibly gravely ill. It is a rare person indeed who doesn't. In fact many people just avoid seeing the sick person all together, thereby avoiding all the nasty odd interactions. So on this one, Bush is no different than most.

[CommanderWhitehead]

11:20 AM on 04/04/2008

Listen, Senator Specter...many great and powerful men have odd phobias. (Hitler was terrified of horses.) I've heard that Bush has a peculiar fascination with bald men, for example.

Remember Jeff (Guckert) Gannon?

Perhaps he was merely distracted by your...uh...lack of hair.

In the photo above... he appears to be looking at your scalp.

Enough about our (strange) Commander-in-chief.

I want to know more about that "single (magic) bullet theory" of yours, from way back when!

How the heck did you get so many people to buy that bridge?

Your powers of persuasion must have been truly awesome back then!

[grannysharp]

11:02 AM on 04/04/2008

Arlen looked like warmed over death, just like my grandson looked when he came home for R&R from Iraq and thats how his family looked when he had to go back. Bush says you should love your neighbor but doesn't do as he preaches. A big hug to any one with cancer regardless of political preference would be the correct response, in my opinion .

[plages]

10:54 AM on 04/04/2008

Dear Senator Specter,

It would appear that the republicons, and some in the democratic party became infected and contagious with bushes insaneness!

[cultkicker]

10:02 AM on 04/04/2008

Arlen you should be happy. Bush is contageous, he was being curteous to you.

[incontempt]

09:52 AM on 04/04/2008

Karma is a bitch

Republicans will be seeing alot of her.

[incontempt]

09:50 AM on 04/04/2008

You were just a henchmen, did you expect flowers or maybe a little respect? shame on you for expecting more then you gave spectre!!!