Conspiracy theorist in me suspects Bush, GOP...

Agreed.

See: Murkowski, Frank

 

Rounds has every right to appoint whomever he likes. I suspect that if it comes to that, he'll appoint himself, if that could be done according to South Dakota's laws. He has designs on the job, so he'd be foolish to appoint another Republican who would have a leg up on the race in 2008.

The classy thing to do, of course, would be to appoint Johnson's widow. I'm not getting my hopes up. Class doesn't come easily to the party that invented swiftboating.

 

He would end his political career by appointing himself to the post. It is unseemly and the voters would see it as a manipulative power grab. And every Dem in SD would despise him for turning the Senate back to the GOP, giving his opponent a very motivated base. But if he appoints a Dem who has no designs on the job, preferably Mrs. Johnson, the voters will respect him for not putting his ambitions ahead of the state's interest/