The Senate Should Remain Controlled by Democrats

With news that Tim Johnson (D-SD) has suffered a brain hemorrhage or something similar, the inevitable inside-the-beltway sport of 'what next' has already started. While Johnson lies in critical condition at GW Hospital in DC, the fate of the Senate is what everyone is talking about. If Johnson is impaired beyond his ability to serve out his Senate term, the Republican governor of South Dakota will have to appoint someone to take Johnson's place in the Senate. It is customary in cases of Senate appointments for governors to appoint people from the same party as the governor, not necessarily the same party as the Senator who is otherwise unable to complete his term. If the Republican governor appoints a Republican to complete Johnson's term, the Senate will once again be 50-50 w/Cheney being the tiebreaking vote. This would technically put the Senate back in Republican control, although it's more complicated than that.

For my part, I think the Senate should stay in Democratic hands, and I say this as someone who usually votes Republican. First off, my hope is that Johnson will be able to complete his term, because that will mean that his health condition has greatly improved, which is something we should all hope for as human beings. But second, if it turns out that Johnson cannot continue in the Senate, I don't think Senate control should flip over something like this. I've long said that changes in congressional control should be decided at the ballot box and not through convenient party switches or untimely illness or death. I believed this when Jeffords switched back in 2001, and I believe it now.

On this issue, I happen to think that consistency is the highest virtue. If a person didn't have a problem with Senate control switching when Jeffords switched, one forfeits the right to complain when and if the South Dakota governor appoints a Republican as is customary and was in fact done pretty recently when Republican Paul Coverdell (through his passing) was replaced with a Democrat by a Democratic governor. If, however, someone disapproved of the Senate switch in 2001 because it happened outside the ballot box, one must stay consistent now and reject an outside-the-ballot-box switch in 2007. That's my position, even though the result is a Democratic controlled Senate that I personally don't like. But in this country, the will of the voters must be respected, even though neither side does. Both sides try to get around the will of the electorate all the time by trying to muscle things through the courts that they could never get through the legislature. Likewise, it is clear from the last election that a broad cross-section of the electorate wanted Democrats in charge of Congress. I may not like it, but there's little denying it. Overturning the electorate's will through the Senate's version of a recess appointment is not a compelling reason for doing an end-around public sentiment.

I am praying for Johnson's recovery as a Christian. I am hoping that public sentiment is respected as an American, should it become necessary for the governor to intervene.