Dear Governor Mike Rounds: Appoint Tom Daschle To The Senate



We live in a democratic-republic, not an aristocracy. That having been said, how absurd is it that Senator Tim Johnson of South Dakota, who suffered arteriovenous malformation and is recovering from brain surgery, is still in the Senate. After several mon ths he is still in the hospital and has only begun to read clippings from the newspapers, if even that is true. The man had brain surgury. Shouldn't his number one priority be rehabilitation? And, conversely, Shouldn't the number one priority of North Dakotans be a Senator ready, willing and able to execute the business of their state in the United States Senate?

So why doesn't he just step aside and recover in private? Well, three words: Governor Mike Rounds. Rounds is a Republican who, via the 17th Amendment of the Constitution, can -- and no doubt will -- appoint a Republican replacement, therby shifting the b alance of Power in the Senate into the hands of ... the Republican Party. Amazing, no?

But the voters of South Dakota elected a Democrat! A Democrat! And former Senator Tom Daschle, a Democrat and former Senate Minority leader who was already elected statewide and is probably the most qualified man in the country for the job -- has volunteered his name to finish out his friends job. Let's hope Mike Rounds has an active conscience and an innate sense of decency and does what is right and, above all, Just, for his State and Our Country. Appoint Tom Daschle, Mister Governor! From our favorite Dickensian columnist, Robert Novak:

"Democratic Sen. Kent Conrad of North Dakota was the stand-in Wednesday at a Washington fund-raising luncheon for the hospitalized Sen. Tim Johnson, who is up for re-election in South Dakota next year.

"The $1,000-a-plate luncheon was held at 101 Constitution Ave., a private office building at the foot of Capitol Hill, to contribute to 'Tim Johnson for South Dakota.' Democratic fund-raiser Haroon Khan told this column he plans 13 similar fund-raisers for the absent Johnson between now and March. The senator will not attend any of these events.

"Johnson has not left the George Washington University Hospital in Washington since suffering a brain hemorrhage Dec. 13. No target date has been announced for his return to the Senate, and no indication has been given of whether he will run for a third Senate term in 2008."

Absurd! Send an email to Governor Mike Rounds here and let him know that the best alternative is appointing Tom Daschle.