WASHINGTON — Carter Glass was the dean of the U.S. Senate and chairman of its Appropriations Committee when he became incapacitated with heart trouble in the 1940s. The octogenarian was absent from the Capitol for four full years, unable to answer a roll call on the Senate floor, cut off from all visitors by his wife.
Local newspapers began to clamor for his resignation, but the Virginia Democrat refused. His Senate colleagues allowed Glass to keep his seat, and even his powerful chairmanship.
That was more than half a century ago, but it illustrates an enduring tradition in one of the world's most exclusive political clubs: Never has the Senate forced a member out of office because of a physical or mental inability to serve.
That hands-off protocol could be a boon to Democrats as they ponder the possibility that Sen. Tim Johnson (D-S.D.) could be incapacitated for months or more after emergency surgery to treat bleeding in his brain. If Johnson dies or leaves office before the new Congress convenes next month, it will erase the Democrats' 51-49 majority and probably return control of the Senate to the Republican Party.
But if he survives and if history is any guide, the only force that will drive Johnson from office before his term expires in 2008 will be a decision by the senator or his family. The Senate -- not governors or voters -- has the constitutional power to force a member out, but has been loath to use it.
"No one in the Senate wants to have that kind of responsibility for judging whether another member is capable or not," said Don Ritchie, associate Senate historian.
"The Senate is a family, as well as a club. There's a real sense of sticking together."
There have been a couple examples of House seats being declared vacant because of inability to serve, but they involved cases where lawmakers were elected while incapacitated and were unable to take their seats. Gladys Noon Spellman, a longtime House member from Maryland, had a heart attack and went into a coma shortly before election day in 1980, but her name remained on the ballot and she was reelected. Because she was still in a coma when the new Congress convened, she could not be sworn in, and her family eventually asked that her seat be declared vacant.
Infirm politicians are able to linger in the halls of Congress in part because they are surrounded by armies of aides who can obscure a distressing reality, both to the public and the politician.
