A lot of people have rushed to analyze the political effects of Tim Johnson’s health problems. If he passes away or is otherwise unable to serve (his condition is critical but stable), a Republican governor will appoint his successor. A Republican appointment would return the Senate to a 50-50 party split.

Johnson suffered bleeding in the brain and underwent an emergency surgery last night.

What few seem to say is: The right thing for the governor to do is appoint a Democrat. That holds no matter what one’s political affiliation is (for the record, I’m a libertarian-conservative who votes Republican, yet is kind of partial to divided government).

Let’s look back a few years to Jim Jeffords’s 2001 betrayal of his conservative supporters. When he left the Republicans to caucus with the Democrats, he gave the Dems a slim majority. But look at the voters in his state: They essentially got to choose between two Democrats. The entire right half of the political spectrum got no say; they went with the most conservative candidate on the ballot, figuring that at least he’d give power to other right-wingers, and then the representative switched after the fact.

At the time, I though it should be illegal to switch parties between elections. If you want to be a Democrat or a Republican, get elected as one — don’t steal Republican votes and then use your sway to give Democrats committee chairmanships. I still believe that.

The same should hold when health becomes an issue: The appointee should have to, at the very least, caucus with the elected party. If a Republican ends up in the seat, South Dakotan voters would have had no chance to elect a Democrat.

Most pundits, as they should be, are focusing on Johnson’s health. They haven’t started circling around the possibly open seat yet. When they do, Americans should be vigilant about consistency between the Jeffords and Johnson affairs. I have a feeling folks on the left and right will show some (un)surprisingly different reactions.

Robert VerBruggen blogs at http://www.therationale.com and http://robertsrationale.blogspot.com.