[Political Junkie Too]

Yes, but my point is not how many "in the Senate" actually vote, but how many are actually "in the Senate." We have 99 Senators today, with Johnson absent. If Johnson resigned tomorrow, that would be 98 "in the Senate." If that were the case, wouldn't cloture then need only 59 votes to pass, not 60?

-PJ

[Political Junkie Too]

If so, it could be a Pyrrhic victory if Reid thinks he has 59, but not 60, votes and tries to pass this at any cost.

If they force Johnson out to make cloture easier, then they are faced with a Republican governor in South Dakota who would likely replace him with a Republican, giving majority votes to Republicans (but not control). Then, the Democrats would try to force Republicans to appoint a Democrat to replace Johnson out of fairness, because the Democrat governor of Wyoming is replacing Thomas with another Republican, even if it's only because he's required by Wyoming law to do so, and not out of a sense of Democrat fairness to Republicans.

None of this will really happen, I'm just speculating on possibilities.

-PJ