Wyoming senator dies

Wyoming Sen. Craig Thomas died today of leukemia. Truth be told, I'd never heard of him, but still a significant figure. He was a Republican and his spot will be filled by a Democratic governor, but the governor has to pick from a list of three provided by the state Republican committee, so the seat won't change hands.

Bit of trivia about him: He replaced Dick Cheney in the House in 1989.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/06/04/senator.thomas/index.html

 

My wife's working with Enzi these days, so I'm sure this will mean a sad start to her Tuesday.

 

Gosh, you know I would have thought I could have made a good stab at naming all of the Republican senators and most of the Dems, but I would have missed on him.

 

Probably means he was a decent skin with friends across the aisle.
Is the procedure in place a Wyoming law, or did the Democratic governor decide to choose from a list of R's on his own?

 

According to the story, it's a Wyoming law.

 

Pretty interesting fact.

 

Craig Thomas was my high school graduation speaker. We were a class of 24 students. For most politicians, our request would have been met with a quick "no," but Thomas was the type of guy who didn't worry about the size of the crowd. He just came and spoke because he thought it was the right thing to do. I thought that was classy.

 

Pretty good law, too. I rememner when Tim Johnson got sick, the speculation was that the GOP governor would appoint one of his own party to replace him. I think Wyoming does it right here.

 

Wyoming does seem to have some very enjoyable and fair politicians in more recent memory. Al Simpson was one of the most fair and intriguing guys in politics and much different then his father, who was also a Wyoming Senator. He did an interview with Bill Maher that was just great entertainment. Find it on Youtube if you can.

 

Wouldn't that have tipped the scales against a democratic majority? Not like it would make a difference anyway seeing how hapless they are.

 

Yes, it would have, and letting the D governor appoint a D to replace Thomas would disempower that useless foof Joe Lieberman, but it still wouldn't be the right thing to do.

 

So hypothetically, if Lieberman was in Wyoming and the same thing happened, would a panel of three people wearing tinfoil hats make the selection?