This could turn out to be quite an impressive run by the republican party.....

2000--Popular vote over-turned by electoral college and a nudge by the Supreme Court.

2004--Homophobic amendments are added to state ballots to draw the base to the polls.

2006(possible)--Senate control achieved by health of a member of the opposing party.

Infinite war and trillion dollar tax cuts for the wealthy. Damn, it was good while it lasted, now we're Paraguay.

All I can say is, nobody better let Dick Cheney or Karl Rove in to visit the poor senator, unless they want him to live through the night.

Welcome to the Banana Republic of America...

In addition to keeping Cheney and Rove off the visitor list, we might want to screen everyone who comes into contact with the patient for salt-sized grains of polonium.

Who indeed are we turning into? Paraguay? Banana republics? Russia?

Pick one.

I looked the man in the eye. I found him to be very straightforward and trustworthy. We had a very good dialog. I was able to get a sense of his soul.

Why is everyone worrying about the balance of power in the Senate? Unless Sen Johnson dies, he can continue to serve as a Senator. Numerous Senators have served while recovering from illnesses, or just old-age (Strom Thurmond). The individual Senator makes the decision to leave office, so Johnson can hang around as long as he wants.

The old cliche is in reality more what we WISH were true, rather than what really is the case.

The Supreme Court's recent Hamdan ruling that slapped down the Bush Administration's extra-legal practices regarding detainees and enemy combatants, while encouraging on its face, was razor-thin -- as many of us noted at the time. The 5-to-3 ruling would have certainly been 5-to-4, had Chief Justice Roberts not recused himself; obviously, it would take only the departure of one member of that 5-person majority to have flipped this important ruling to the "dark side."

Similarly, if Sen. Johnson leaves office and is replaced as expected by a Republican, look at the huge implications for control of the Senate! We should all pray HARD that Sen. Johnson recovers, not only for the purely human reason that mandates concern for another's health and welfare, but for the larger good of this country.

A 50-50 split in the Senate would be a horrible prospect, considering how control of that body would revert to the GOP.

I want to add my voice to CParis1's comment that we shouldn't discuss balance of power unless Tim Johnson were to die. It is a bit ghoulish to be speculating about and discussing someone's death when they are still alive.

A bit of history: Joe Biden was operated on for a intracerebral aneurysm many years ago, and served in the Senate after his recovery (he took essentially a medical leave). He is still a prolific Senator.

In addition, the reason for the bleed is a congenital defect, so there is no reason to suppose this would be a recurring event unless and until the doctors say so.

Is it too soon for the Polonium 210 jokes, or do we have to wait until he's out of the ICU?

The Frrm the Wires section of Salon made a wonderful connection for me on this. They use the abbreviation for arteriovenous malformation, which is AVM. That's what Nate had on Six Feet Under. It helped me understand a little better what the heck was going on and I noticed that this abbreviation isn't mentioned on MSNBC or CNN, so thought I'd pass the tidbit along. It does seem that he has a good chance of recovery.