Why Voinovich cries easily? His 9-year-old daughter killed in a car crash

NYT: A Teary-Eyed Rebel Defies Party Leaders

....His tendency to cry, he said, developed in the years after his daughter Molly, 9, the youngest of his four children, was killed in a car crash in 1979. "It happened after I lost my daughter," he said. "It is like having a stroke."

Mr. Voinovich first drew attention for the inclination more than a decade ago when, as governor, he cried while responding to reporters' questions about the consequences of welfare cuts.

He has appeared to cry or hold back tears in public many times since then. In the interview last week, his eyes moistened as he talked about his daughter's death, about Pope John Paul II's visit to Israel, and again about his own work in the Senate.

No one has held his tears against him yet, Mr. Voinovich said, and he said he was not worried about his critics....

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/06/politics/06senators.html

i am in love. and a republican at that. bless him. so sad about his daughter. i am glad he is not hard on himself for those tears. the touch of humanity

I'm still a lil weary myself though. But only he knows his intentions of his emotions.

i'll be on his ass, lol and a wink. but i can honor him in this.

"That man is a clown, a crying clown," said Bill Cunningham, a conservative talk show host in Cincinnati,...

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/06/politics/06senators.html?

Humanity is apparently not very popular with Neocons.

ya well, but we know this. actually i was thinking this the first time i heard he cried. i didnt much care, but thinking, wow what are repugs saying, not only did he go against them, but he cried too.

The neocons are the type that like to present themselves as macho like Bushie does. He brings out the wife and kids for his "sensitive" side and to appeal to the, mainly female (in this case), voters. :eyes: I remember one Earth day they had a photo of him going in a forrest and an ax in his hand. On Earth day! :crazy: He couldn't be planting a tree or something like that. If they show emotions they're not a "strong leader."

I remember when Voinovich's daughter died, I was fourteen years old and living near Cleveland. It was during the Cleveland mayoral race with Dennis Kucinich, Voinovich went on to defeat Kucinich. The pain and grief he and his wife were so obviously going through was almost unbearable to watch. It really was a terrible tragedy, the way she died. I've never been much of a fan of Voinovich at all, but I've never doubted the humanity of the man, unlike so many of the neocons.

Thanks for the post...

He has a real touch of humanity.

I was growing up in Clevo when that happened; very, very sad day.

Poor guy. I don't know how parents ever manage to get over losing a child.

Never, really.

It must be a terrible, terrible thing to outlive your children. My heart goes out to everyone in that situation. :(

Thanks for posting the article

and also that every person has a world of expierience and personality facets that makes them unique.

This is very sad. I hope it gives him extra sensitivity and the firmness to buck orders when he perceives what has happened to the children in Iraq and the children of the dead US soldiers. He needs to pay attention to this. There is a dearth of human feeling in the neocon leaders, and he needs to stand up to their inhuman policies more in the coming weeks and months.

...my sister died suddenly of a massive heart attack in 1980 at the age of 26.

He still gets a little misty-eyed when her name comes up.

Thanks for posting this.

He got weepy thinking about what we kids would do without a mom. He got weepy when we bought him a brand new tv for his room. He butched right back up again though when he had the stroke. Still, it was a shock to me. He was never one to be weepy before that.

Now I'm getting weepy. Damn, I miss him.

Poor thing.

Ouch.

did not let America's flame totally burn out on the filibuster deal, and his speaking out against this ramrodding Bolton freak, but he is a repuke and therefore I wouldn't trust him any further than I could throw him.

it happened after he was first elected to the Senate but before he actually started serving there the next year.

didn't Voinovich say something like Biden was the one who got him to take a serious look at Bolton and question him rather than just go along in accepting him as other Republicans did ?

i would not be surprised if Biden and Voinovich had developed a close relationship based on this common experience with the loss of their daughters.

I thought he currently has a wife & three kids one of whom, I assume the oldest is named Beau and I remember reading an article that said that he is around 35 which would put his birth in 1970 or so...two years before Biden got into the Senate. Does anyone have any links so that I can fill in the details? I'll check but I think his kids are Beau, Hunter, and Ashley and his wife is Jill. I could very well be wrong but I seem to remember reading about his wife in the present tense and both sons have kids of their own, I think.

I'm sorry I just rambled so much but I am kind of confused. Can anyone help me out?

Thanks so very much in advance!

Biden's wife & daughter were killed in a car accident; his two sons were also in the vehicle, both survived.

Biden subsequently remarried; he and his 2nd wife have a daughter.

How sad for him. I think I have new respect for both him and Voinovich. That would be so hard to get through. What is it with Senators losing children? Edwards, Voinovich, Biden, Santorum...

How sad and yet inspirational.

I'm sure him watching parents bury their children 6 feet under in Arlington will push him to come to further understand those who opposed war if he hasn't done so.

I do have a problem with men who are so out of touch with their emotions that they cannot cry.

I'm also certain that all of us who have lived long enough (and suffered some of life's hardest blows) can empathize with Mr. Voinovich.

Voinovich has done some surprising things in having a bid of conscience and changing his ways of dealing with extremists, now he actually acts like a real republican.

He has seen life taken away from someone young and innocent.

I cry when thinking about all the dead Iraqi children and I see the agony on the parents' faces.

You have to be really cold not to feel something.

You know he is in anguish, he should be the one to help stop what has been started to get other people's children killed, not only in Iraq, but in other parts of the world......Sudan......Iran coming up.....etc.

Let's think on a "Cosmic Consciousness" Mr.V!!!!

It's never too late to change............

themselves before they develop compassion for others who have, and an awareness of the need for society to provide safety nets for certain kinds of events.

Empathy is a quality in which many Republicans are lacking. When we see one of them fighting for what seems to be a progressive cause (e.g., another Republican who lost his son to depression-related suicide is a champion for mental health coverage), sadly, in almost every case, it's because they have experienced the problem themselves.

don't kid yourself.

as do Freepers. They don't seem to be bothered by *'s weeping in public, though. I remember *'s tears as he nominated Colin Powell as Sec. of State.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1417261/posts

Sad about his daughter. Still can't stand the guy.

emotions right on the surface, permanently. I saw this with my mom, who, for years after her stroke, cried very easily at the slightest provocation.

Voinovich may have explored the inner effect the tragedy had on him, maybe even with professionals, in an attempt to understand (and somehow deal with) it.

:loveya: Parents are not suppose to watch their babies die. :( My dad was the same exact way after my big brother died at the young age of 41 of a massive heart attack. Dad never did get over that. He cried about everything, but always cried when we talked about my brother.. (Dad was always this tough, big old macho man dude) Then he started having mini strokes and those made it even worse.

Voinovich has every right to cry. He lost his baby. He's entitled.

Who criticized him for crying? :grr: