Democrat Senator has brain surgery

arbilad · Head Chef

Democrat Senator has brain surgery

rayb · Hot Air Balloon

Is it wrong to be giddy?

--Ray

salesortonscom · Wise and Revered Master

Giddy about a man possibly dieing is wrong. Giddy about your party getting power back is good. You can separate the two.

TitusTodd · Senior Member

If, sadly, Sen. Johnson doesn't recover there is question about what the Republican governor should do. Some are saying he should appoint another Democrat because that is what the people who voted for him would want. However, did they vote for Sen. Johnson because he is a Democrat or for Sen. Johnson because of who he is and it just so happens he is a Democrat? I personally don't think he was voted into office because he is a Democrat.

Hopefully Sen. Johnson will recover. If he doesn't, I feel sorry for the governor with the decision before him.

Cat Herder · Understander of unimportant things

Ditto, TT.

If per chance he doesn't recover or opts to retire / give up his seat, whether or not the governor appoints a Republican or a conservative Democrat is not going to make a whole lot of difference in the long run. The Senate will either remain the same or be split 50 / 50 along partisan lines, and either way not much is going to get done because of the partisan bickering. I mean, think about it, do we really think much is going to get done as it stands now with the Democrats holding a simple majority of one seat? We would be foolish to imagine things are going to be any different than it has been for the last 12 years. Just different actors in the various roles.

Randy · Senior Member

The party in power makes at least one crucial difference. That is, with Republicans in the majority, it is possible to send the president's judicial and other nominees to the Senate for them to either vote on or filibuster, or exercise the so-called "nuclear option" or let the threat of that force some concessions by the Democrats.

With the Democrats in power, if they oppose one of the president's nominees his name will never be released by the relevant committee to be voted on by the entire Senate. And if it did happen by some miracle, Senator Reid, the new majority leader, will never exercise the "nuclear option" because he agrees with the principle of thwarting justices who follow rather than create law, and was Daschle's right-hand man in doing so.

Any chance of getting an originalist justice added to the Supreme Court in the next two years is therefore extremely small.

-- Edited by Randy at 08:50, 2006-12-15