Dying Congressman to Lead Watchdog Committee

The gerontocracy wins again

A gaunt Rep. Gerry Connelly interviewed by CNN

A 74-year-old congressman stricken with an especially deadly form of cancer was chosen today to be the top Democrat in charge of oversight, a watchdog role that will oversee investigations into public corruption and wrongdoing over the next two years. Two days after his re-election last month, Rep. Gerry Connolly on November 7 disclosed that he had esophageal cancer. Medical experts told us that the survival rate for esophageal cancer is extremely low.

“The cure rate is extremely low, and even under the most favorable of circumstances only a tiny minority can be cured,” Dr. James Stark, a Harvard-educated 30-year veteran oncologist, told us.  

While the five-year survival rate for esophageal cancer is about 20 percent, “when it is already large or has spread to other parts of the body, treatment is more difficult and the five-year survival rate is lower,” according to the U.S. government’s National Cancer Institute (NCI). Connolly has said that he is undergoing chemotherapy, which the NCI says “is used when the cancer cells have spread to other parts of the body.” 

In other words, Connolly, now the top House Democrat on a committee responsible for overseeing ethics and accountability, will almost certainly die of the illness. Yet despite that, House Democrats today voted 131-84 for Rep. Gerry Connolly to serve as ranking member of the Oversight Committee. Connolly defeated Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the 35-year-old congresswoman also contending for the position. Connolly won the support of several of the party old guard, including 84-year-old Rep. Nancy Pelosi, who found the strength to whip votes in his favor even after she was rushed by a U.S. military medevac for a hip replacement after suffering a fall while on official travel. It remains unclear whether Pelosi advocated for the septuagenarian directly from her sick bed or with the help of her whip team. 

“Gerry’s a young 74, cancer notwithstanding,” a top ally, Rep. Don Beyer, reportedly said. 

Even if Connolly survives, treatment is grueling. It is unclear whether he’ll have the stamina to lead a committee that is supposed to be the federal government’s watchdog amid the incoming Trump administration.

“It is a horrendous thing to undergo,” Dr. Stark said of the treatment. “After radiation and chemo, a patient will likely have his esophagus removed. If that happens they will take a piece of the stomach, and hook it up to the area where they remove tissue.”

Doctors I interviewed took a uniformly dim view of Connolly’s prognosis, expressing shock that he hasn’t resigned, much less been passed up for the demanding oversight role.

“This man is clearly dying,” a Pennsylvania-based surgeon told me, requesting that their name not be used in order to comment candidly. “This is insanity.”

Another doctor remarked bluntly, “His goose is cooked.”

Connolly’s press secretary, Nick Burroughs, did not respond to a detailed list of questions about Connolly’s diagnosis and his likely prognosis.

Sources on Capitol Hill were reluctant to comment on Connolly’s health, including even his critics, who appeared to prefer to stick to policy critiques. Decorum, it seems, is the last refuge of the gerontocracy.