 RE: "It's easy to believe that Ted Kennedy won't survive his coming term..." ...Oh. ...Now WHERE did you say we were supposed to send those 'contributions'...??? |
Posted on 12/15/2006 6:29:44 PM PST by goldstategop
RUSH: Eleanor Clift (this would be Newsweek but it's the MSNBC website) has a column called, "Dem[ocrat]s and the Johnson Crisis -- Tim Johnson's health crisis is a reminder of the fragility of the Democratic majority. What the party should do now," and let me just read you some excerpts of this. "Just as Wellstone’s untimely death cost the Democrats a key Senate seat, Johnson’s illness should inject a sense of urgency into the Democrats’ agenda. No one would have put the robust-looking Johnson on an endangered list. Democrats have plenty of octogenarians and septuagenarians to worry about making it through to the next election. A health crisis that strikes without warning is a reminder of the fragility of the Democratic majority.
"With the direction of U.S. policy for the next two years riding on Senate control, Democratic leaders can’t afford to sit around figuring out how to position the party for ’08. That doesn’t mean they have to overhaul Social Security, but they should do what’s doable. Don’t delay; raise the minimum wage and try to lock in whatever reform protections they can. Life is ephemeral, and so is control of the Senate... There is precedence for senators to remain in office despite being," decapitated. (Laughing.) Incapacitated, sorry, I told you: giddy day. "Sen. Joseph Biden suffered an aneurysm soon after dropping out of the presidential race in 1988. He was 45 at the time, and it was eight months before he was back at work. Today he’s considered one of the brightest minds in the Senate on foreign policy," not by many, "plus he's a likely presidential candidate demonstrating there is life after brain surgery."
That's debatable, too, Eleanor, at least in his case. Now: "Under South Dakota rules, unless Johnson or a member of his family declares him incapacitated, he can continue to serve indefinitely.... The doctors will soon have their say about Johnson’s prognosis, and assuring him that he remains..." Now get this. She is now dispensing medical advice to the doctors. She writes this: "[A]ssuring him that he remains a U.S. senator could be an important part of his recovery. If that’s the case, however eager the Republicans are to reclaim Senate control, it’s hard to imagine the governor of South Dakota, who is a Republican, wanting to do anything that would jeopardize Johnson’s recovery — like naming a Republican to replace him."
I told you this was going to happen! I knew this was going to happen.
The Drive-By Media mounting a campaign even now to intimidate and influence the Republican governor of South Dakota should he have to name a replacement. Eleanor Clift's tack is: "Don't name a Republican! Why, that would hinder his recovery. In fact, and the doctors need to tell him that he will remain a US senator! That could be an important part of his recovery." Look, I'm not a doctor, but I don't know that the problems here are emotional. When you have the abnormality that Johnson has, and apparently he has had it since birth, and the bleeding on the brain, I don't know that there's an emotional component. That certainly may be part of it, but at any rate, she's giving medical advice now (laughing) and starting the move to make sure that the governor out there gets the message that it would "hinder his recovery" if he appoints a Republican to replace him should he have to resign.
Then, I mentioned this earlier: "The grim reaper may be stalking a couple of other Democrats," John Fund notes in Opinion Journal's Political Dairy, "Hawaii is represented by two 82-year-old Democrats," Daniel In-No-Way and Dan Akaka, "and Hawaii's Republican governor, Linda Lingle would presumably nominate someone of her own party if a vacancy or two developed. Though admittedly ghoulish this new political parlor game is kind of fun. At 89-year-olds Robert ["Sheets"] Byrd is even older than Hawaii's senator," and they mention 74-year-old Ted Kennedy. "Should he be unable to complete his term because of morbidity or mortality, the governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney, would replace him with a Republican," but Romney's out. He's not going to be governor for very much longer.
Anyway, this is just a cold town.
["Sheets"] Byrd ....
HA HA, its going to be fun watching the KKK Grandwizard loosing any control of his mouth. The "N" word is going to pop out more often.
When they vote, it will be funny to watch Harry Ried go nuts when Sheets just sits there drooling.
Tim Johnson's health crisis is a reminder of the fragility of the Democratic majority.
No kidding. The MSM wants to make this a big Democrat victory, but the fact is it's a very few votes in a lot of places. The majority is VERY fragile. Good.
It sounds like he may be more concerned about national security than helping the democrats get political revenge.
Heck, I'm looking forward to watching him p!ss himself on CSPAN.
RE: "It's easy to believe that Ted Kennedy won't survive his coming term..." ...Oh. ...Now WHERE did you say we were supposed to send those 'contributions'...??? |
"Which means Massachussetts could have only one Senator till an election is held."
Massachusetts won't even have one senator, if John Kerry is still following the schedule he followed a couple of years back--absent from Capitol Hill as much as 7/8 of the time.
IIRC, the governor names a replacement until the next election, November 2008.
The MA legislature change the law so Mitt Romney wouldn't be able to choose J F'n K's successor if he had won the 2004 presidential election.
Cheating bastards!
Yes, but we have to be careful. Craig Thomas (R-WY) was diagnosed not that long ago with leukemia and there is a D governor there. The balance could tip at any time.
Let the chips fall where they may. It might just cause both parties to nudge out their more geriatric members from safe states. I don't even think it would be good for Republican prospects in 2008 if they held nominal control of the Senate.
Doesn't Johnson have to be present at the Senate in order to vote for their caucus? Watch for the Dems, out of compassion, of course, to push for absentee mail-in ballots for Senate votes.
Eleanor has gone off a Clift, er..., cliff!
"Tim Johnson is the least of Harry Reid's problems."
And, didn't Reid himself have a minor heart attack or minor stroke a couple of years ago?
I tend to believe that Lieberman is more concerned about national security than most Democrats. He would be the one to be getting the revenge on the Democrats: those who backed him in the primary then abandoned him in the general election.
Repeal the 17th Amendment and kick them all out. hehe
There's a rumor going around the liberal crowd that if they suck out and eat the brains out of a partially birthed children, it will add an additional 15 minutes to their life.
/sarcasm
Having the burden of remaining a US Senator, and all the expectations that go with that, in fact could be detrimental to Johnson's health. Imagine the stress of knowing that everbody around him doesn't give a whit about him, but only about his vote in the Senate. Naturally, that line of thought doesn't fit into Eleanor Clift's own political agenda, so that possibility doesn't even get a passing mention. Which shows that she considers him to be nothing more important than a piece of political meat.
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