Remarkable given that tumors of this sort are usually terminal and that, per some early prognoses, he had only two or three years left. Remember, too, he had a seizure on Inauguration Day. And now he’s coming back to lead the health-care push?

The next generation of Kennedys are pretty much all idiots and of course Caroline’s Senate bid flamed out spectacularly, so I guess he figured the only way to keep the dynasty going at this point was to beat cancer.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Tuesday that he spoke with Kennedy’s wife, Vicki, in the past few days and was told the 77-year-old lawmaker is “doing fine.”

Reid said Kennedy’s cancer is in remission and added that while the lawmaker is going through another regiment of treatment, the procedure “is not unusual.”

“This is something we expected,” he said…

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), one of Kennedy’s closest friends in the Senate, also said that Kennedy would return to wield the gavel on healthcare reform during the first week in June.

I haven’t seen anything about his current prognosis so it’s unclear whether doctors think he’s beaten it or whether it’s just sufficiently at bay for the moment to let him return to work. I’ll update if I stumble across any information about that.

Update: Contain your surprise upon learning that Harry Reid was talking out of his ass. I should have known better; passing along a statement from Reid without checking it is like passing along stuff from Wikipedia. Mea culpa.

The Nevada Democrat reported that one of them, Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., was absent because he was receiving a new round of treatment for his brain cancer. Asked if the cancer was in remission, Reid replied, “As far as I know, it is, yes.”

Kennedy’s office refused to confirm Reid’s comments or make any statement in response, the public silence a classic Washington disavowal…

Even the post-gaffe handling of Reid’s remarks was awkward. Spokesman Jim Manley, who previously worked for Kennedy for years, swept through the press gallery to clean up after his boss. He retracted Reid’s assessment of Kennedy’s condition. He clarified Reid’s comments about the Guantanamo Bay prison.

Manley’s job was no fun at that moment, a reporter observed.

“Not so much,” he said.