Is Fred Thompson's Cancer Back?

It's the question that dare not speak its name.

Has the cancer Fred Thompson's doctor said was "in remission" several months ago now come back, with a vengeance?

I'm not involved in this. I'm a Democrat. I have friends and relatives who have had cancer, some of whom have come back strong, others of whom have passed on. This is not a political point.

But for a political reporter, it is a question which demands to be asked.

Yet it isn't.

If Thompson's cancer is back it would explain a lot. He's gone in four months from being "Frederick of Hollywood" to "Grandpa Fred" among the blognescenti. His fundraising started strong, but has fallen quickly. He has made few public appearances. He showed up at the Iowa State Fair last week on a golf cart.

Then there is how he looked on that golf cart. Stricken. Thin. Frail. Skin pulled off the face like a cadaver. Much older than his 64 years.

That's what chemotherapy does. It kills you, in the hopes that cancer cells, being weaker as they've focused solely on reproduction, will die off while the rest of the body survives. It's the ultimate gunfight at the O.K. corral, and it's going on right now, in millions of beds around this country, people staring down the barrel of death through a needle drip.

It's tragic, frightening, ennobling, and far too often it's all in vain.

God bless Fred Thompson if he does have cancer, but if people are decide on a President he should at least have some of the grace and courage of Elizabeth Edwards.