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If you're a praying man or woman...

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ednbarby:
... pray for Democratic Senator Tim Johnson of South Dakota, who underwent surgery last night to repair a condition in his brain that caused several blood vessels to become enlarged and tangled, and which led to bleeding in his brain.  He is in critical condition but recovering from the surgery.  They're supposed to issue an update on his condition later today.

Here's the thing.  If he can no longer serve in the Senate, the Republican governor of South Dakota will appoint a new Senator who will no doubt be Republican also.  Not only will this give the Senate a 50-50 tie of Republicans and Democrats (which grants Dick Cheney as Vice President and President of the Senate the deciding vote in any 50-50 split), but this will make it such that Democrats will no longer be able to head Senate committees by virtue of having a clear majority.  One of these Senate committees - the Senate Judiciary committee - was about to start investigating the Administration.  If a Republican Senator from SD takes Johnson's seat, that committee will no longer be headed by a Democrat and the investigation will go bye-bye.

Not to mention that this man is only 60 and has a family and I'm sure friends who would miss him very much, of course.

Jeff Wrangler:
I wish I'd paid closer attention to Tim Russert's commentary on the Today show this morning. I remember him discussing situations in the past when incapacitated senators did not give up their seats--and thus could not be replaced. Some were so severely incapacitated they never showed up, one voted "yes"--"aye"--on something by pointing to his eye.

I wonder whether anything has been changed so that an incapacitated senator can be forced to resign his seat?

starboardlight:

--- Quote from: Jeff Wrangler on December 14, 2006, 03:41:58 pm ---I wish I'd paid closer attention to Tim Russert's commentary on the Today show this morning. I remember him discussing situations in the past when incapacitated senators did not give up their seats--and thus could not be replaced. Some were so severely incapacitated they never showed up, one voted "yes"--"aye"--on something by pointing to his eye.

I wonder whether anything has been changed so that an incapacitated senator can be forced to resign his seat?

--- End quote ---

or maybe the rule varies from state to state? I'm not up on this as much as I should be.

delalluvia:

--- Quote from: ednbarby on December 14, 2006, 11:16:35 am ---... pray for Democratic Senator Tim Johnson of South Dakota, who underwent surgery last night to repair a condition in his brain that caused several blood vessels to become enlarged and tangled, and which led to bleeding in his brain.  He is in critical condition but recovering from the surgery.  They're supposed to issue an update on his condition later today.

Here's the thing.  If he can no longer serve in the Senate, the Republican governor of South Dakota will appoint a new Senator who will no doubt be Republican also.  Not only will this give the Senate a 50-50 tie of Republicans and Democrats (which grants Dick Cheney as Vice President and President of the Senate the deciding vote in any 50-50 split), but this will make it such that Democrats will no longer be able to head Senate committees by virtue of having a clear majority.  One of these Senate committees - the Senate Judiciary committee - was about to start investigating the Administration.  If a Republican Senator from SD takes Johnson's seat, that committee will no longer be headed by a Democrat and the investigation will go bye-bye.

Not to mention that this man is only 60 and has a family and I'm sure friends who would miss him very much, of course.


--- End quote ---

Oh, boy.  [sigh]  I think we were in the same boat pre-9-11 but were 'saved' when a Republican jumped parties and shifted the numbers after a Democratic senator was killed in a plane crash.

injest:
hmm...I believe that they CAN remove him but they have always been very reluctant to do so..and he DOES have to be severely incapcitated with little or no chance of recovery.

the good news is that he was communicating with his wife and reaching for her hand..that was the report on TV a short time ago!

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