Neurologist: Johnson in for a long recovery

http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/articles/2007/01/03/news/state/state04.txt ^ | 01/03/2006 | milwguy

[milwguy]

SIOUX FALLS (AP) - U.S. Sen. Tim Johnson may be in for a long recovery from brain surgery, according to a Sioux Falls neurologist.

Dr. William Rossing said he bases his belief on the length of time that Johnson has been sedated.

Doctors used prolonged sedation to minimize swelling after Johnson's emergency surgery for bleeding in the brain.

Recovery for someone who has been sedated as long as Johnson, 60, is likely to be "significant and lengthy," Rossing said.

It usually takes only a few days to wean a patient from sedation, Rossing said. Johnson has been sedated since Dec. 13 and is being weaned gradually

[Paleo Conservative]

The Constitution states that South Dakota will have two senators. They have two. The fact that one is incapacitated doesn't change that.

It doesn't say just they must have the same number of senators, it says

no State, without its Consent, shall be deprived of its equal Suffrage in the Senate.

That's stronger. If a senator is incapacitated, and can not vote, that means that senator's state is being denied equal suffrage in the Senate!

[scrabblehack]

Hmmm...has a governor (or state government in any capacity) ever pushed the issue?

The House of Representatives did press the issue.

I recall the case of

Gladys Noon Spellman (March 1, 1918—June 19, 1988)

On October 13, 1980, Spellman collapsed at a children's Halloween costume party after suffering an incapacitating heart attack, rendering her comatose for the final years of her life. House Resolution 80 of the 97th Congress, adopted February 24, 1981, declared her seat vacant. Steny Hoyer was subsequently chosen in a special election to fill the vacancy.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gladys_Noon_Spellman

Any others? I am inclined to think that the Senate would have to declare the seat vacant.

[FastCoyote]

"I have a client in South Dakota who says they are taking this in stride, and that they all know that Johnson will never be a Senator again, and that the Senate will go GOP. She wondered why the press was so hysterical about it."

What I wonder about is when Jumping Jim Jeffords pulled his stunt, I don't think the Dems turned him down and said party switching was an impossibility.