I think that Rounds should do exactly what Roy Barnes did. Appoint a very very moderate member of his own party. Someone call the moving van to help Lincoln Chafee move to Sioux Falls 
Didn't Chafee say he was gonna switch parties?
It sounded like he might consider it in the future, but he hasn't jumped ship yet. That's why he's a FF, and not the HP he would be if he gave in to the enemy.
For the record, I've never called the opposite party the enemy.
In addition, I don't see why someone would go from massive FF to massive HP just because their opinion of which party they fit in changed, when their actual views didn't change at all.
Chafee is a Republican out of some sense of duty and honor rather than because they are the party that actually fits him best ideologically. The same reason that Zell Miller is a Democrat; it's a family tradiition for both of them I'm sure, and a lot of people feel like it would dishonor their parents and ancestors to be in a different party than they were, I think.
So long as Johnson doesn't die, I highly doubt he'd resign, given the implications of the possibilty that would give the GOP the Senate. If he does pass on, Governor Rounds is certainly free to appoint a Republican and I won't begrudge him that if he does, but hopefully at the very least he'd appoint a caretaker who would refuse to run for the seat in 2008. In addition, I feel it would be fair to have even numbers of seats on all committees for both parties and a power-sharing agreement rather than a GOP majority (since the majority itself would only be dependent on the Vice President's tiebreaking vote to begin with, added into the factor that Democrats won 51 of the 100 seats).
I do agree that voters vote for the man just as much if not more than they do for the party in Congressional races, but thusly a very conservative Republican certainly shouldn't be nominated as they would be very unlike Johnson.
I think it's all moot anyway (moot, not mute....that's one of those pet peeves of mine). Johnson almost certainly will survive, but the main implication here is that he almost certainly will retire in 2008, thus giving the GOP a possibility of a pickup. Hopefully Herseth runs.
