Senator Tim Johnson's (D-SD) possibly life-threatening illness, which required him to have brain surgery on Wednesday could put the Senate in Jeopardy. If by some horrible means Senator Johnson doesn't recover enough to carry on his elected duty in the Senate, South Dakota Gov. Mike Rounds, a Republican, is empowered with the gut-wrenching ability to pick a replacement, who will finish the remainder of his elected term.
Naturally, the most important thing is that Johnson lives, since this is potentially life-threatening, and hopefully he'll be alright and God-willing fully recover, even if he cannot continue his term.
If Johnson has to resign, Rounds will more than likely choose a Republican, which would knock the Senate back to a 50-50 split, this giving Cheney veto power. I urge the Governor that, if he is forced to pick a replacement, he respect the voters' opinions and pick a Democrat with similar views as Senator Johnson.
Will he do that? Most likely not, at the probable urging/threatening of the GOP. It would show his trust in th voters, and is naturally the best thing to do. It would be hard, but I hope the petty partisan bickering can be put aside for one moment, and the Republicans face the face that this is life, life isn't always fair, the voters weren't happy, and they need to try again in 2008.
But when the last time Republicans actually tried listening to the people?
-Adam
2 comments:
I hear there will be alot of talk about nominating Johnson's son for the vacant seat, as there is a lot of precedent for it and the son actually has the chops. But thankfully right now the situation's looking pretty good for Johnson.
Good to hear that his son would make a good politician as well. But with any luck, he'll be back in his seat in no time.
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