By William Neikirk
Former Rep. Henry Hyde (R-Ill.) and one of his forrmer staff members, Pat Durante, had a private standing joke.
According to Durante, Hyde told him many years ago that, if he ever wound up in the hospital under sedation, his job was to make sure that "no one was standing on my hoses." This especially applied to any rival candidate who might show up in his room, said Durante.
And so Durante went to see his old friend and boss in Provena Mercy Medical Center in Aurora this week. Hyde, who had triple heart-bypass surgery over the weekend, was sedated, with a tube down his throat. A nurse was trying to wake him up.
When the nurse left, Durante stepped up, identified himself and told his heavily sedated friend: "What they meant to tell you, Henry, is that you're at Mercy Hospital and you are at their mercy, I'm here, Henry, to make sure no one is stepping on your hoses."
There was an immediate reaction. "Boy, he just smiled away, you know," said Durante, who served as an executive assistant to Hyde and is now Addison Township's Republican chairman.
He added that the former congressman, 83, appears to be on the road to recovery.
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Comments
No youthful indescretion happening here.
Posted by: Doug Zook | July 26, 2007 4:47 PM
Here's a good one, Mr Hyde;
There once was a certain Dr. Jekyll....
Posted by: C.Morris | July 26, 2007 6:39 PM
As Billy Joel said,"only the good die young".
Posted by: Raving Loon | July 27, 2007 1:54 PM