the possible incapacitation of Sen. Tim Johnson (D-SoDak)<\/a> a possible political blockbuster. South Dakota state law lets the Governor — a Republican — appoint a successor of his own choosing, meaning he could choose a fellow Republican, turning things into a 50-50 “tie” again. <\/p>\nI like to think that, were the shoe on the other foot, I’d be urging a Democratic Governor to replace a GOP Senator with another Republican. Regardless, this could be huge<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 51-49 majority in the Senate is awfully fragile — especially when the other side has the VP to break a 50-50 tie. Which makes the possible incapacitation of Sen….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[54],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-elections-2008"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":133932,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/07\/21\/the-senate-parliamentarian-says-the-senate-gop-health-bill-needs-60-votes-not-50.html","url_meta":{"origin":10596,"position":0},"title":"The Senate Parliamentarian says the Senate GOP health bill needs 60 votes, not 50","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 21-Jul-17 6:12pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The Senate has an elaborate interlocking set of rules that dictate how and in what ways it conducts business and passes bills. For most legislation, for example, the Senate must vote to close debate on the bill. These cloture votes require a super-majority of the Senate -- 60 votes [1].\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":131965,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/11\/07\/daves-last-two-pre-election-2016-posts-no-really-part-2.html","url_meta":{"origin":10596,"position":1},"title":"Dave's Last Two Pre-Election 2016 Posts, No, Really (Part 2)","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 7-Nov-16 11:31pm","format":false,"excerpt":"So for the past several years, we've had a Congress where the GOP dominates both houses. And the White House is occupied by a Democrat.How has that worked out?No, really. We've had a Republican Congress posturing about what it wants to undo about the Obama legacy, about stopping the Obama\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/US%2BSenate%2B538%2B2016-11-07.JPGimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/US%2BSenate%2B538%2B2016-11-07.JPGimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/US%2BSenate%2B538%2B2016-11-07.JPGimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":9730,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/11\/09\/and_the_senate_too.html","url_meta":{"origin":10596,"position":2},"title":"And the Senate, too?","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 9-Nov-06 7:17am","format":false,"excerpt":"All of a sudden, it's looking pretty likely that the Dems will be declared the winner in the Virginia Senate race, giving them the Cinderella Story majority ... barely. Which...","rel":"","context":"In "Elections 2006"","block_context":{"text":"Elections 2006","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/elections-2006"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":133183,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/03\/31\/party-majorities-as-minority-coalitions.html","url_meta":{"origin":10596,"position":3},"title":"Party majorities as minority coalitions","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 31-Mar-17 10:44am","format":false,"excerpt":"The article is correct in noting that, at least in some areas, the GOP majority in the House (and Senate) are less solid than the simple numbers and red-vs-blue maps make them seem, as the AHCA debacle demonstrates. There are multiple and fluid subgroups within the Republican party that make\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":28373,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/06\/19\/because-if-government-works-then-people-might-actually-like-it.html","url_meta":{"origin":10596,"position":4},"title":"Because if government works, then people might actually like it!","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 19-Jun-12 1:43pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Mitch McConnell declares -- as GOP minority leader in the Senate, mind you -- that there will be no more judicial confirmations until after the election, five months from now.On the (very dim) bright side, he appears to be torquing off Republicans, too.'The practice has been used by both parties\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":130206,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/03\/16\/and-thats-a-wrap-for-marco-rubio.html","url_meta":{"origin":10596,"position":5},"title":"And that's a wrap for Marco Rubio","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 16-Mar-16 12:35am","format":false,"excerpt":"The early hope of the anyone-mainstream-but-Bush, and then the desperate hope of the anyone-anyone-except-Trump(-and-Cruz), Rubio couldn't even hold his home state against the Donald. I have no regrets seeing him go, save that it marginally increases Ted Cruz' passing odds against Donald Trump.The man's awfully young to be a has-been;\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10596"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10596\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}