NBC leads with the Johnson Stroke.....Precedent

[AnnInLa]

Interesting analysis, watch it if you're on the West Coast. A precedent was discussed by Timmah....seems in the 60's, a repuke senator, also from SD, suffered a dibilitating stroke, but he refused to resign, and served another upteen years (can't remember, but long time), and NEVER showed up in the Senate again.

So, evidently the person has the right to refuse to resign, and then the governor couldn't do a damn thing about it? That's what Timmy and Brian seemed to be saying.

Timmy reported on a brand new NBC/WSJ poll....said the news for bush "was grave and deteriorating." Timmy really said that. The news is just devastating for bush....watch it.

[rodeodance]

1. so did abc.

[MrCoffee]

2. from msnbc...

The 17th amendment of the U.S. Constitution says state legislatures can give their governors the power to appoint someone else to take over, but only in the case of "vacancies."

What's a vacancy? Clearly death or resignation, but history suggests not much else. Serious illness doesn't count.

The Senate Historian's office cites several examples of a senator being incapacitated for years and remaining in office.

Most recently, Sen. Karl Mundt (ironically, also from South Dakota) suffered a stroke in 1969 and was incapacitated, but he refused to step down. He remained in office until Jan. 1973 when his term expired. Mundt was pressured repeatedly to step down during his illness, but he demanded that the governor promise to appoint his wife. The governor refused, and Mundt remained in office.

Another example was Sen. Carter Glass, D-VA. Sen. Glass had a heart condition that prevented him from working for most of his last term after his re-election in 1942. Yet Glass refused to resign, and finally passed away from congestive heart failure in his apartment at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington DC in May of 1946.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16191212/

[renate]

5. thanks, that's encouraging

Of course like everybody else I'm concerned about Senator Johnson on a personal level--if he can be a popular politician in a state like South Dakota, he must be a heckofa guy, and it's easier to pray for the recovery of a nice person than a mean one.

But it's silly to pretend that the implications for the entire world of a shift in Senate power aren't huge in comparison to his personal well-being, and it's only natural to be thinking about that, too. So your information is definitely reassuring.

[dflprincess]

24. Hubert Humphrey - his last senate race was in 1976

and he ran knowing he probably wouldn't serve the full term (he died in January 1978) and I think most of us who voted for him knew that as well. But, the candidate, the voters and even the state Republicans, were all content to ignore how serious his illness was.

In past campaigns he had used the slogan "You know he cares". In his last campaign it was "Show him you care". I can't imagine many politicians who could get by with that slogan.

[no_hypocrisy]

3. Woodrow Wilson suffered a stroke, didn't resign, and had his

wife, Edith, act as his surrogate. (He was quite debilitated as a result.) She read the bills from Congress and signed them into law upon his direction.

[Radio_Lady]

4. Thanks, AnnInLa. Appreciate your mentioning this.

[benddem]

6. Let's just hope

Sen. Johnson does well. He's relatively young, they have great drugs these days.
I wish Timmeh and Brian had given a little forethought to this mess. They were cheerleading all along.
Guess it had to get really bad for them to realize.

[mentalsolstice]

7. Fortunately a lot of advances made in stroke care

It doesn't have to be as debilitating as it used to be, particularly with quick detection. Hopefully, he'll fully recover!

[in_cog_ni_to]

8. Do we know yet how bad his stoke was? My mom had a pretty bad stroke and FULLY recovered.

Do we have anymore info on Mr. Johnson?

[tblue37]

13. My brother ended up in a vegetative coma from a stroke caused

by a hip replacement operation a couple of years ago. He woke up a month later, went through several months of therapy to learn to move again and function normally, and now is fine. He was 55 at the time of his stroke and in good health, which probably helped his recovery.

[leftchick]

9. damn

I guess bush will feel the need to escalate militarily in the ME. He and cheney have nothing to lose. :(

[Straight Shooter]

10. I am totally convinced by now that Satan is on bush's side.

"grave and deteriorating"? Are they saying that's Johnson's condition, or that's how bush received it?

Get well soon, Senator Johnson. The fate of the world lies in the balance of the Senate.

[truthisfreedom]

11. no, the new poll for support of the bush war... down 11 points since October.

very very bad for bush.

[Straight Shooter]

12. I'm referring more to the balance of the Senate.

I wish no harm to any Senator, truly, but this sort of thing gives me the creeps, that it's a Democratic Senator who possibly has a close call.

Little Boots doesn't listen to the people, anyway. Most Americans did not support the Iraq invasion but he ordered it anyway. It was the so-called liberal media cheerleading for the bush administration that convinced a lot more people to eventually support it. Those who are now turning against the war are finally coming to their senses. Too late for the dead.

[elehhhhna]

14. GW's brain is completely effed up and I don't see HIN resigning. Reagan had

mid-level ALTZHEIMERS for god's sake and the media pretended it was Cute and Grandfatherly. GHWB was friggin wiggin during his Halcyon depencency (google it up, guys -- major delusion-causing drug) and he sure didn't resign.

A dem Senator w/ a mild brain malfunction/recoverable injury is still better than what the other party has at bat.

[AlCzervik]

15. my grandmother had a massive stroke at 70 and recovered to about 90%

and that was 16 years ago, i think medicine has come quite a way since then.

[mod mom]

16. Bleeding from Congenital AV Malformation link:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061214/ap_on_go_co/johnson

[mod mom]

18. SURGERY SUCCESSFUL!

Johnson suffered from bleeding in the brain caused by a congenital arteriovenous malformation, the U.S. Capitol physician said, describing the surgery as succesful. (AT LINK)

[Recursion]

17. Looking further back, Sumner didn't show up for years

But stayed nominally in the Senate while overseas recovering from his caning to keep a pro-slavery majority from taking over the Senate. Even after the Civil War he had to be dragged in on a stretcher to vote to convict Andrew Johnson after his impeachment. Since there's no equivalent of the 25th Amendment for Senators, there is nothing a governor can do if a Senator refuses to resign (this is an important separation of powers; as a comparison, note that it requires agreement by *some* people in the Executive for the 25th Amendment to come into play).

[ruggerson]

19. Let's pray the surgeons were Democrats

n/t

[lisa58]

20. As long as he's alive...

...they can't make him resign.

[BonnieJW]

25. That's right.

The requirement for an elected senator to keep his seat is the ability to fog a mirror. Look at Strom Thurmond. He was practically stuffed and mounted at the end of his term.

[melissinha]

21. for lurking freepers, all this speculation is sickening

We at DU are not a bunch of conspiracy loonies, Senator Johnson's illness is an unfortunate condition caused by no one....

Now lets all get down to just praying that Senator Johnson make a full recovery. This balance of power speculation is kind of sickening and I mean on both sides.

[datavg]

22. Even If The Senate Flips Back...

...it won't mean much. Bush is a lame duck in every sense of the word. Most of the new Democratic Senators are Blue Dogs (Webb in Virginia, Casey in Pennsylvania) and will vote with the administration about half of the time anyhow.

Tim Johnson is a good guy and I pray for his recovery but in the political scheme of things, this is a non-event.

Reid was apparently discussing the possibility of elevating a Senator to the Supreme Court, earlier this week. One of the people who made his list was Lindsay Graham...who is certainly not a Democrat but also certainly not a rubber stamp for the administration nor for his party.

For all intents and purposes, the Bush administration is over. It's now just a matter of determining what comes next.

[Jennicut]

23. Webb is hardly what I would call on Bushie's side

He really dislikes Bush and is a populist, I don't see him voting with conservative repukes. I would see it the other way, as the moderate Repubs left (not many) would flip to the Dem side as they would be worried about reelection in 2008 and Bushie's poll #'s.

Hope Sen. Johnson gets well soon.