A Royal Pain in the...Hand

His Excellency, the Governor of Virginia, is in lots of pain.

Aides say Mark Warner's famous stubbornness finally gave way Wednesday when his doctor virtually forbade him from taking a scheduled trip to Maine today. Warner had been scheduled to participate in a National Governors Association town hall there (as well as some political handshaking). He told his doctor he intended to go.

Are you nuts? the doctor said, in not exactly those terms. Warner broke his right hand in a bicycling accident over the weekend and had to undergo two hours of surgery. Drugs masked the pain immediately after the surgery, but Warner's people said he got very little sleep Tuesday night and was in excruciating pain.

Warner seemed better this morning, though. He traveled to the studios of WRVA radio in Richmond for his monthly Ask The Governor radio show. The "clipped wing" didn't stop him from answering questions about eminent domain, welfare, budgeting (his favorite topic) and stem cell research.

He told the radio audience that he knew things were returning to normal when his three daughters began giving him grief again Wednesday evening.

There have been plenty of jokes about Warner's accident -- people have noted that politicians shake hands, hold babies and sign bills with their right hands. Ellen Qualls, the governor's chief spinmeister, told him he should just say he has a bionic hand.

But seriously, we here at the blog wish him well -- and plenty of drugs.

By Michael Shear |  June 30, 2005; 10:09 AM ET  | Category:  Democrats
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