Ted Kennedy showed up for work yesterday in the Senate for the first time since he was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor in May and underwent surgery in June. He even brought his dogs! The Massachusetts senior senator attended a lunch and released a statement:

I am particularly looking forward to seeing my staff and my colleagues and to working in the current brief session on a realistic new stimulus package to help our fellow Americans who are suffering in this economic crisis. I will also continue to lay the ground work for early action by Congress on health reform when President Obama takes office in January. We've been making real progress in our discussions about a consensus approach, and I'm optimistic we'll succeed. I am grateful for the prayers and good wishes I've received over the past several months. They have certainly lifted my spirits, as has the election of Barack Obama as our 44th president.

His Senate staff apparently encouraged him to omit from the statement the part where he said, "and if Hillary Clinton tries to take health care away from me again in my last days, these dogs have been trained to kill."

Kennedy Statement [Politico]