Still waiting for developments to develop after Sen. Tim Johnson's surgery for a brain hemorrhage

Doctor: Senator responding to voice, touch
POSTED: 6:38 p.m. EST, December 14, 2006

WASHINGTON (CNN)--Sen. Tim Johnson, who underwent brain surgery Thursday morning, is responding to word and touch, his doctor said.

The Democratic senator from South Dakota suffered a brain hemorrhage on Wednesday.

Johnson, 59, was in critical condition Thursday morning after surgery, said David Boyd, a spokesman in the nursing supervisor's office.

Adm. John Eisold, attending physician at the U.S. Capitol, said Johnson's post-operative recovery has been "uncomplicated."

According to the senator's spokeswoman, Julianne Fisher, Eisold said the bleeding in the senator's brain was the result of pressure from blood vessels that are too close together, a condition known as congenital arteriovenous malformation.

Johnson was born with the condition, he said.

"He underwent successful surgery to evacuate the blood and stabilize the malformation," Eisold said. "The senator is recovering without complication in the critical care unit.

"It is premature to determine whether further surgery will be required or to assess any long-term prognosis."


AS FOR TALK OF "REPLACING" OUR TIM . . .

One doesn't wish to be tactless, and of course we have every hope for Senator Johnson's substantial or even complete recovery. But . . .

As the Republican jackals gather 'round, licking their chops at the prospect of turning the Senate back into the hands of "Demento Dick" Cheney, might we suggest a "Republican approach" to evaluating the senator's fitness to return to his job? You know, as in the case of the all-but-mummified final years that Strom Thurmond and Jesse Helms inhabited their seats--and as Jim Bunning is apparently doing now. Not to mention that there must be at least a dozen sitting GOP senators in whom not even the Senate's own departing superquack, Doctorbill "It's Alive!" Frist, could discern any measurable brain function. One hates to name names, but Oklahoma Sen. Jim Inhofe (above), come on down! And is that Texas nutjob John Cornyn standing near him? Come on with him!

And if the Republicans want to get fussy about setting minimal standards for brain function, not only are they going to lose those dozen clumps of useless protoplasm, but what chance is there that Demento Dick himself could pass any kind of "working brain" test? Why, you could thwack your way through his cranium with a machete and not turn up any healthy brain tissue. (Actually, if anyone has a machete handy, why don't we try it?)


ENCOURAGING UPDATE, AS OF A BIT AFTER 9:30PM ET

The AP is reporting that the senator--

remained in critical condition but was described as recovering and holding his wife's hand Thursday after emergency overnight surgery to repair bleeding inside his brain. . . .

The South Dakota lawmaker, 59, was on "an uncomplicated postoperative course," the U.S. Capitol physician said after visiting him Thursday afternoon. Johnson suffered a hemorrhage in his brain caused by a rare and sometimes fatal condition.

"He has been appropriately responsive to both word and touch. No further surgical intervention has been required," said the physician, Adm. John Eisold. He had said earlier, "The senator is recovering without complication."

Johnson was responding to the voice of his wife, Barbara, and following directions after the surgery, the senator's office said in a statement. "He was reaching for and holding her hand."

One chiling detail I noticed in one of the reports: "Outgoing Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist visited the hospital Thursday." Presumably hospital security was up to the job of promptly ushering the quack the hell out of the building.