Senator Showing Weakness After Surgery

This is also off The New York Times:

WASHINGTON, Dec. 15 — Senator Tim Johnson of South Dakota was showing weakness on his right side on Friday after surgery to relieve bleeding in his brain, his office said, and will remain in the hospital until the swelling in his brain goes down.

“The surgery was considered a success,” the office said in a statement.

Surgeons removed the blood during a procedure late Wednesday and stabilized the bleeding, the statement said, relieving the pressure on the brain.

Mr. Johnson, 59, remains in the intensive care unit at George Washington University Hospital in critical but stable condition.

“Considering his initial presentation, his progress is encouraging,” Dr. Anthony Caputy, the chairman of the hospital’s department of neurosurgery, said in the statement, adding that Mr. Johnson continues to show “signs of responsiveness” to hospital staff and his family.

Mr. Johnson, a Democrat, began to stutter Wednesday while on a conference call with reporters, then walked back to his office, aides said. After being examined by the Capitol physician, he was admitted to George Washington University Hospital with what his office called “the symptoms of a stroke.”

His illness raised the possibility that the Democrats might lose the 51-to-49 majority they are expecting to assume in the Senate that convenes in early January.

I've been somewhat reluctant to talk about this story for the simple fact that I don't know what to say. Government officials become ill, surgery takes place--there is nothing new about that. The big reason for the media's splattering Johnson's illness all over the front pages is simply that if Johnson dies, or is forced to resign from the Senate due to his illness, then South Dakota's Republican governor Mike Rounds may choose a Republican replacement senator, thus taking control of the Senate away from the Democrats and handing it to the Republicans. It has become a huge political battle going on outside of Johnson's hospital room, where speculation, charges, fears, and perhaps even a ghoulish glee abounds. In this polarized electorate, I wonder just how many Americans are secretly wishing for Johnson to die, just so Rounds can appoint a Republican replacement and change control of the Senate to the Republican Party. It is this story, and the endless speculation of the Senate's balance that has taken hold of the media, and the country. And this speculation will continue until Johnson makes a recovery, or ends up dying in office.

Until then, I'm simply waiting and watching.