The fact that you (probably justifiably) felt you had to explain that makes me feel old, yet again today. Sigh. I was a grown-ass adult in my 20s when all that happened.
Humphrey and Kennedy were two of the 303(!) Senators who died in office.
Robert Kennedy also died in office, as he was still a Senator while campaigning for the Presidency when he was assassinated.
That number surprised me.
Concerning the CPR, was the EMT saying that they were doing CPR after responding, or that someone was doing it when they arrived? In the latter case, it may not have been necessary and just someone doing it because McConnel had passed out and they didn’t know any better, which would explain the lack of special care when he was being placed in the ambulance.
Yes, according to the article posted upthread, paramedics performed CPR on McConnell.
Paramedics conducted CPR on a person experiencing a “cardiac arrest” at a known address for Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., on the day his office disclosed he had been hospitalized, according to police scanner audio obtained by NBC News.
According to the audio, the first medic on the scene began performing CPR, according to the dispatchers, and was then joined by an additional EMS team at the same address.
The law provides for filling a vacancy. It is the Senate who declares a vacancy.
For purposes of a member’s qualification to hold a seat, the Senate judges his capacity. A judgement of civil incapacity or total disability from a court (state or federal) reaching the Senate would be admitted as a piece of evidence for that purpose but not legally compel their decision.
One more time with feeling: under the Constitution and law, disability however severe or prolonged does not per se create a vacancy.
Ok, then. The stats I have seen for cardiac arrest treated with CPR (especially in elderly patients) along with this post by a paramedic make me think that McDonnell may well be in much worse shape than we are being led to believe.
I take CPR courses with AED training every two years. At some point they let slip that the recovery rate for cardiac arrest treated with CPR is pretty dismal (about 10% for patients out-of-hospital). But the chances of a person in cardiac arrest surviving with no treatment are even worse (near zero for a person with no pulse), so it’s a worthwhile skill to learn.
Use of an AED has a much better survival rate—up to 90% if shocked immediately (i.e. within 1 minute of arrest)—but more typically between 24% and 38% if a shock is delivered before paramedics arrive. However, AEDs are typically only found in public places, not people’s homes. And someone needs to be trained to use them in a CPR/AED course.
Thanks. So a Republican-controlled Senate is not going to do anything that might potentially jeopardize losing their majority—so they are unlikely to declare a vacancy even if McDonnell is comatose. Which he may well be.
Or dead, for that matter, if they can keep it quiet.
McConnell.
There is little they can do in reality, and if McConnell is not there to vote, that does not help their majority. Right now the count is 52-47 if my numbers are right. Really folks- as long as Mitch stays out, this is a Good Thing. We do not want him coming back.
Declaring a vacancy because of the health condition of a Senator would be overly unconstitutional, even for this crowd. The health condition does not matter. And the prognosis does not matter.
If someone is elected to a full six year term, and is sworn in on the morning of, say, January 3, 2027, and goes into a seven year long coma five minutes later, that seat is going to be de facto vacant for the next six years (assuming we remain under the current constitution that long).
Now, my hope would be that the Senator recovered. This cannot be ruled out. See:
Intensive Care Medicine: Complete recovery from an unusual cause of coma
Yes, this is unusual. So unusual it was written up in a medical journal. But there must be other cases.
Right. Karl Mundt had a stroke in 1969 and remained in office for another three years until his term expired without ever setting foot in the Capitol again. Mitch being out for a few months is small potatoes.
Kinda- mostly- Article I, section 5 of the United States Constitution
Each House may determine the Rules of its Proceedings, punish its Members for disorderly Behaviour, and, with the Concurrence of two thirds, expel a Member.
So it is just barely possible. Technically.
But again, other senators have been out for much longer and no one has seriously talked about expulsion.
Good point.
McConnell is not dead, not in a coma, not brain dead- and wont be expelled. There- I called it. Next- my prediction is Mitch will not be back in the Senate by November- if ever, except if they roll a real sick man down the aisle to applause.
But - a real vacancy would have a (contested) Special Election, who could serve until the end of this year. So maybe 6 months? The Governor would also appoint someone, there’d be wrangling in the courts, etc.
Not even, at this point. The general election is less than three months away now, and the start of the next Congress is less than five months away.
Even if a special election to fill McConnell’s seat for the rest of his term were going to happen, with every day that passes, it becomes logistically more difficult to get it scheduled prior to the general election on November 3rd.
Yep.
Senators in a coma are not disorderly.
However, I suppose that if they wake up from the coma and find out the Senate expelled them, then they might be disorderly.
Dammit! 
I need to go easy on the day-drinking.
It’s not logistics. It’s too late per Kentucky law:
Andy Beshear threatens to challenges the law as unconstitutional. He would fail. If he sent a Democrat to Washington, they would not be seated.
I remember the difference between the two like so:
Old McDonnell has a farm.
Old McConnell is going to buy it.
Yeah, I agree, not gonna happen.
True, but the House has voted to impeach a President who has not-
The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.
What crime was Bill Clinton convicted of? (Okay, let us not go down that rabbit hole, but you see what I mean).
It depends on whether or not the GOP Legislature passed that bill legally under their State Constitution. So, the Bill could be overturned. But not anytime soon, and the time to file that was some years ago.
Yep. No chance.
Those are three separate clauses. It doesn’t read to me as if the only cause for expulsion is meant to be disorderly conduct; though I’m not the SCOTUS, which is who would be authorized to interpret the language.
But the Concurrence of two thirds is the show stopper here.