Posted on 08/07/2007 10:20:48 AM PDT by SmithL
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Democratic Sen. Tim Johnson is returning to his home state of South Dakota for the first time since suffering a life-threatening brain hemorrhage eight months ago.
The senator has been recovering at hospitals and in his Fairfax, Va. home and has not appeared in public since he fell ill. He will travel to South Dakota this month and is expected to return to the Senate in September. Johnson has been undergoing speech therapy and is expected to use a scooter to get around in the Capitol.
In a statement released Tuesday by his office, Johnson said his doctors have cleared him for travel.
"I know my return has taken longer than some people have liked — count me among them," he said in the statement. "But I learned early on in this journey the importance and necessity of relying on the advice and counsel of those doctors, nurses and therapists without whom, my return would have been impossible."
Johnson, 60, was rushed from his Senate office to George Washington University Hospital after becoming disoriented on a conference call with reporters in December. He underwent emergency surgery for arteriovenous malformation, a condition that causes arteries and veins in the brain to grow abnormally large, become tangled and sometimes burst.
He was stricken a month after elections that gave the Democrats a one-seat majority in the Senate, and his ailment raised the possibility that, if he were incapacitated, South Dakota's GOP governor would appoint a Republican successor and return the Senate to GOP control.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Ditto, prayers.
Is Reid still pressuring him to run for re-election?
But on a side note....Democratic politicians do not use their brains anyway.
The voters in SD deserve real representation.
I hope he recovers too. But I don’t think he’ll run again.
How long will South Dakota be denied equal suffrage in the Senate?
Wasn’t this the guy who was doing great and bouncing back about six months ago?
Anybody know when his term ends?
And "Johnson has been undergoing speech therapy and is expected to use a scooter to get around in the Capitol and is expected to return to the Senate in September." is not incapacitated?
First time home.. good for him. I wish him and family well.
I wonder if there have been any other Senators on scooters before? probably more than a few in wheelchairs or walker & cane have served over the years.
He was reelected in 2002, so he would be up for election again in 2008.
‘08.
Just a little side note:
Notice the wishes for the well being of a political opponent on this website, as opposed to the comments on the democrat websites when a political opponent falls ill. Just further proof of who the true hate-mongers of the world are, and how terrifying it is that they are in power in congress. If only they were mature enough to recognize that, there would be some hope left for this country.
Prayers for recovery and resignation.
I think that if there were a better alternative, Reid would by pushing for them to run. If he runs again Johnson is not an automatic win unless the Republicans pussy-foot around the issue of his health.
Like Strom Thurmond.
Like Strom Thurmond.
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