Mr. Heppler posted Jason Folkerts's cartoon depicting the "National Media and Politics" as a couple of vultures, ready to pick at the story of Tim Johnson's illness. I do not share this view of the reporting on this issue. The pastor of my Church said a word for Senator Johnson during this morning's service, though he is not to my knowledge a Methodist. My guess is that Tim got mentioned in a lot of churches in South Dakota and elsewhere, and was included in the prayers of many, both in and out of the sanctuary. This is altogether proper, but it is more mention than the average citizen usually gets when he or she is in the hospital. This son of South Dakota sought and occupies a position of public honor, and along with that goes public love and attention.
For accidental reasons, Senator Johnson's life and health represent the balance of power in the United States Senate, one of the most powerful representative bodies in the history of representative bodies. It would be unrealistic not to expect the news media to focus on that fact. Nor would a lack of such focus be something that we should want. Political journalists (and political scientists) are always complaining that Americans don't take enough interest in politics. But when they do, we just as frequently complain that they are not taking interest for the right reasons.
People have every right to want to know what is happening and how it will affect policy making in Washington. The news media exists to service that sort of desire. With the exception of the tin-foil hat crowd that I posted on recently, I think the public attention to Senator Johnson's hospitalization has been reasonable and civil, and no one has anything to be ashamed about.
Some decorum is of course in order. The New York Times reports that Governor Rounds is "mum on replacement talk."
In the tornado of talk about Senator Tim Johnson’s political future after his surgery to stem bleeding in the brain, one man has stayed mostly out of sight and mostly silent but for conveying his prayers through spokesmen.
Gov. Mike Rounds, a Republican whose duty it would be to appoint a replacement for Mr. Johnson, a Democrat, if that becomes necessary, finds himself in his most unlikely political role yet: the single person, potentially, to decide the partisan split of the United States Senate.
Besieged with questions about whom he might select, Mr. Rounds has declined to address the topic, his aides denouncing the inquiries as premature and beyond impolite and a subject that Mr. Rounds would not have given the first thought to.
That is exactly the right thing for Governor Round's aides to say. Anything else would be beyond the bounds of propriety. On the other hand, giving thought to that question, right now, is exactly what Governor gets paid for. I am sure he is giving it lots of thought.
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