Byrd’s staff: Hospital a private matter

Sen. Robert Byrd’s (D-W.Va.) staff has been unusually guarded with information about where he has been hospitalized, saying the longest-serving senator in U.S. history deserves his privacy.

Despite a handful of media reports that Byrd was taken Monday night to Inova Fairfax Hospital, spokesman Jesse Jacobs has declined to confirm the 90-year-old senator’s whereabouts and questioned why that information is relevant to the public.

{mosads}A spokesman at Inova Fairfax Hospital said that no one under Byrd’s name has been admitted but that Virginia law allows patients to be admitted under a pseudonym.

Byrd is chairman of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee and as Senate president pro tempore is third in line to succeed the president.

The approach is a departure from how Byrd’s staff handled the first of his three hospitalizations this year and sharply contrasts with the openness with which Sen. Edward Kennedy’s (D-Mass.) office handled his brain cancer news.

Jacobs released a statement Monday night saying that Byrd was hospitalized with a fever, but did not disclose the location. Byrd’s hospitalization in February was disclosed at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, but when the senator was hospitalized in March, his office began denying that information to Capitol Hill media.

Jacobs said he is respecting the family’s wishes.

“I’m just curious why it is so important for all you news organizations to know what hospital he is in and every detail of his hospitalization,” Jacobs wrote in an e-mail to The Hill. “While I know he is a public figure, he and his family are entitled to some privacy. And it is my intention to respect their wishes.”

Kennedy’s office last month disclosed that the 76-year-old senator was taken to Massachusetts General Hospital after suffering a seizure, and on Monday underwent brain surgery at Duke University. Kennedy had been diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor.

Byrd’s health and ability to lead the Appropriations panel has been the subject of behind-the-scenes talk this year shortly after his second hospital stay. He was hospitalized on Feb. 26 after suffering a fall in his Virginia home and again on March 5 for an allergic reaction to medication he was taking for a urinary tract infection.

Several Senate Democrats raised concerns in a closed-door meeting and wondered if Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) should shift some of Byrd’s responsibilities to other members.

Byrd answered in April by chairing a hearing on the emergency war-spending bill, which seemed to silence his critics at the time.

After his third hospitalization, Democrats stood behind Byrd and said he should continue to hold his full responsibility.