Historical Record Shows Congress Doesn’t Get Rid of Members In Ill Health

Think Progress catches Fox News salivating at Tim Johnson's "incapacitation" and eagerly speculating about his replacement by a Republican. Jonathan Singer at MyDD, however, provides a list of some explicitly relevant historical precedents, all of which show that unless a sitting member of Congress is actually dead or in a coma there has never been an action by House or Senate to forcibly expel a member suffering from health-related incapacity. A number of members have served several years despite suffering severely debilitating infirmities.