5 replies on “The Senate”

  1. To start restoring democracy to our nation, and responsibility and accountability to the nation’s executive office, we may need to bind Senator Johnson to his desk a la the manner the Spanish did El Cid to his horse. We’re in bad shape. We need desperate solutions.

  2. JB- Are you specifically talking about S.D.’s Republican governor likelihood of installing a Republican Senator to replace Johnson, if Johnson can no long serve?

    Otherwise, the Republicans had nothing to do with this unfortunate turn of events.

    As an aside, one “halfway” precedent was during Watergate: With Nixon on the ropes, and Spiro Agnew no longer the veep, this meant the House Majority Leader was also the next in line to be President – meaning if Republican Richard Nixon left, then Democrat Carl Albert would be the president. According to Wikipedia, Albert openly questioned whether it was appropriate for him, a Democrat, to assume the presidency when there was a public mandate for the Presidency to be held by a Republican. Albert announced that should he need to assume the presidency, he would do so only in an acting capacity, and would resign after Congress appointed a Republican Vice President. (text licensed under GFDL)

    As I said, it was only a half-precedent, and may not really apply to this case, because the governor would be making the appointment. I’m just saying the governor would probably put in a Republican, but perhaps it would be appropriate to consider whether there is a public desire for that to happen?

  3. Very good points Michael, I don’t see the conspiracy in any of this. Quite the unfortunate event and I guess some Demos are feeling the loss (early). But that’s what happens when you wave the “Mission Accomplished” banner over Demo-Party headquarters. The Dems haven’t even taken the reins and they’ve won AND lost.
    On the other hand, any Republican that has already turned their back on El Presidente Bush and war is unlikely to flip-flop and start supporting some whacky lame-duck president, they have their own political futures to secure.

  4. I am not saying there’s a conspiracy here, no no no. I am not saying the Republicans caused the illness. (How that was read into my comment, I have no idea.) Here’s all I am saying: I think it’s despicable the Republicans could regain control of the Senate (the veep would be the tiebreaker) by appointing a Republican to replace an elected Democrat. That’s wrong.

  5. In the case of Tim Johnson, you make a valid point. Johnson, one of the two Senators from South Dakota, was first elected in 1996 and was narrowly re-elected over John Thune in 2002 when Republicans were on an upward swing in popularity. (Thune ran again two years later and knocked out Democrat bigwig Tom Daschle from his Senator’s seat.) It looks like the people of South Dakota wanted to keep Johnson.

    Incidentally, from looking at recent S.D. history, it looks like there is a pretty standard method of upward movement for the recent who’s who among politicians in that state. Check it out:
    Larry Pressler (R): Rep. 1975-79 -> Sen. 1979-97
    Tom Daschle (D): Rep. 1979-87 -> Sen. 1987-04 (took over Pressler’s Rep. district)
    Tim Johnson (D): Rep. 1987-97 -> Sen. 1997- X (took over Daschle’s Rep. district; defeated Pressler for Senate in 1996)
    John Thune (R): Rep. 1997-02 -> Sen. 2005- X (took over Johnson’s Rep. district; defeated Daschle for Senate in 2004)
    Stephanie Herseth (D): Rep. 2004- X -> Sen. ???

    I would have added Bill Janklow (Rep. 2003-04) in there, but he is basically off the political radar after the Cadillac incident.

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