Mrs. Mundt guarded him day and night and would not permit reporters from
South Dakota to see him. After a couple of years and when South Dakota
voters were getting restless, Willard Edwards, Washington correspondent
for THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, was permitted purportedly to interview Mundt.
Edwards wrote that Mundt was getting better and was preparing to return
to the Senate. Edwards, the father of conservative biographer Lee
Edwards, came to see me in my capacity as press secretary to Senator
Gordon L. Allot (R-CO). I gave him the information he was seeking and
then I confronted him. "Why did you do a false story on Senator Mundt?
You know very well he is not getting better and has no intention to run
for re-election." Edwards looked at the floor and mumbled that he wanted
to help Mrs. Mundt, an old family friend. The Edwards story was picked
up by every South Dakota media outlook. That calmed down the voters but
not the Governor. He wanted two Senators representing that small State.
Mrs. Mundt, on the other hand, wanted the higher pension benefits if
Mundt served his complete term.
Finally, when the term was ending, the Governor went to see Mrs. Mundt.
He showed her a certificate appointing Bob McCaughey, the Senator's long
time Administrative Assistant, to the Senate. McCaughey had been a close
friend of the Mundts and the Governor thought perhaps to see McCaughey
in the Senate would be enough for Mrs. Mundt. It was not. The other
paper the Governor had with him was a letter of resignation. The
Governor pleaded with Mrs. Mundt, observing that the pension benefits
were substantially the same if the Senator resigned near the end of his
term or if he stayed in office until January of 1973. She said
absolutely not.
There are other precedents as well. Senator Carter Glass (D-VA) served
from June 1942 until May 1946 unable to vote - and was re-elected in
November 1942! Senator Clair Engle (D-CA) was so ill that he could not
speak. The Democrats brought him to the Senate Floor by a wheelchair.
When it came to vote on the major civil rights bill of 1964 Engle
pointed to his eye as a substitute saying "aye." Senators H. Styles
Bridges (R-NH), Robert F. Wagner (D-NY), Arthur H. Vandenberg (R-MI),
Joseph P. Biden, Jr. (D-DE), David Pryor (D-AR) and John D. (Jay)
Rockefeller, IV (D-WV) between them missed votes for about five years.
We don't know at this point Senator Johnson's longer term prognosis. He
could be out for months. Voters returned Senator J. Strom Thurmond
(R-SC) to office knowing that he would be 100 years old if he completed
his term. He did so but it wasn't easy. At the end of the First Session
of the 108th Congress he returned to his office and told his Chief of
Staff "It's time to go home." The Chief of Staff had a devil of a time
convincing him that he had another year to serve. He was in a wheelchair
for most of the time but other than that incident he seems to have kept
his wits about him.
It seems to me that it is about time for the Senate to reform its rules.
No Senator should be able to serve past age 80. If Senators became ill
they should be given six months to recover. If a Senator is not able to
say "aye" and "nay" clearly and knows what he is voting on, fine, even
if he is in a wheelchair. But if the Senator is not of sound mind he
should have to give up that seat. Senators, unlike Representatives, do
not face their electorate every other year.
With the present rules Reid need not worry. The Senate will stay in the
hands of the Democrats even if Johnson is never able to cast a vote or
speak a sentence.
Last time out Johnson won his race by a mere 500 votes. And now his seat
mate from South Dakota is Republican Senator John R. Thune. There is a
clear contrast between the two on issues.
Our sympathy goes out to Senator Johnson, his wife and family.