The Elephant in the Room: Senator Tim Johnson's medical condition

WP: The Elephant in the Room

As the new Democratic Senate gets sworn in today, the big question is whether Sen.Tim Johnson's serious medical condition will affect the party's fragile majority.

His office made it clear yesterday that the South Dakota Democrat's recovery from a brain hemorrhage will be slow and that he will not be voting anytime soon. He spent his 60th birthday last week in the intensive-care unit of George Washington University Hospital, where he has been in critical condition since emergency brain surgery Dec. 13.

He has not spoken since the surgery, said a spokesman, and he remains on a ventilator at night. Johnson is up for reelection in two years, but until then no authority can remove him from office.

"One vote really shouldn't matter if senators keep their pledge and work in a bipartisan manner," said Jim Manley, spokesman for incoming Senate Majority LeaderHarry Reid (Nev.).

Julianne Fisher, a spokesman for Johnson, said his staff has sought guidance from Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Del.), who was out for seven months in 1988 after surgery for two brain aneurysms.

Biden's office offered this first piece of advice to Johnson's staff: Stop sending out mail in the senator's name.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/03/AR2007010301545_2.html (Scroll down.)

Aside from the political consequences, I feel so sorry for Senator Johnson. :(

...wound up in the position of appointing a replacement for the remainder of Senator Johnson's 2 years.. and if Rounds selected a Republican.. that Senator Olympia Snowe has indicated she's considering switching parties out of protest.

Hey.... :shrug: I heard it on Hartmann.. And Hartmann knows his chit.

Evidently, Senator Snowe thinks that losing a majority under these circumstances just isn't right..

Personally, I think Senator Johnson will eventually make a full recovery ~~~ ~~ but in the rare instance that he may not return..

--if it's true that Senator Snowe is that type of person.. wow.. ... KUDOS to her!

I'm surprised they haven't yet changed parties.

How is the republican senator, from I think Mt. who is ill. He is supposed to be taking chemo.

In a state with a Democratic Governor..

Not sure how Senator Thomas is doing these days?

I know there have been Supreme Court justices in the past who have clung to their office simply because they did not want to retire during a certain presidency, i.e., they wouldn't like their replacement. So even though they were decepit and old and senile, they refused to step down. And the only way they could be removed is by impeachment or other proof that they were no longer competent. And no one is eager to start that process rolling.

So Johnson should just hang on for now. Make the Repubs initiate the process to remove him. How do you think that would go over in the public eye? Republican Senators act to remove a sitting Senator from office while he lies in the ICU recuperating from surgery. Great headline!