At Roll Call, an Uneasy Silence

Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada appointed temporary substitutes to key committees where the Democrats could not afford to lack a vote. Barbara Boxer of California would chair Ethics in Johnson's stead; Jack Reed of Rhode Island would chair the Appropriations subcommittee on military construction and veterans affairs; Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey would occupy Johnson's chair on the Budget committee.

There were inadvertent slights. Another Capitol Hill paper, Roll Call, published a supplement listing committee members in the new Congress. Johnson was mistakenly omitted from Budget and Ethics.

"One of the things that makes it easier is jumping back into the work," says Todd Stubbendieck, the legislative director. "We've tried to return to be as normal as we can be, and get back into the swing of things and the normal schedule."

"We all want to work hard so when he comes back, he's proud of the work we've done," Fisher says.

Luckily, Johnson had nearly completed a series of legislative planning meetings in the days before he was stricken. The staff is following that plan.

His key constituencies include farmers, ranchers, veterans, seniors, rural communities. Although his profile is low on Capitol Hill, in South Dakota, a state with fewer people than Prince George's County, residents address their senator as "Tim" when they see him in the coffee shop on Main Street.

"He's one who was never real imbued with the power and the glory, he just wanted to do a good job," says Jerry Oster, news director with WNAX-AM radio in Yankton, who has known Johnson since he was a baby-faced lawyer in Vermillion. "It's part of that Norwegian upbringing. Don't care who gets the credit . . . . We always kid him about being Norwegian powered by coffee."

If Johnson's recuperation lasts longer than several months, then his absence will be felt more keenly. That is when the farm bill will be moving through the Senate, and the appropriations process will be underway.

"Senator Johnson's main impact would come this summer," says Troy Larson, executive director of the Lewis & Clark Rural Water System, which is seeking $35 million for pipeline construction. "It would not be possible for senators in other states to make up that clout."

As always in the political world, some are sizing up Johnson's prospects for reelection in 2008, and whether his illness has made him vulnerable. A moderate Democrat from a very red state, Johnson has twice won tight races for the Senate.

"I think the reelection question is a key one," Samuelson says. "I talked to Barb [Johnson] about whether or not to shut our fundraising operation down. She said that she felt that when Tim recovers, he will want to run for reelection. We can't know that for sure, but that's what she thinks and that's what I think as well."

A Small, Empty Desk

Johnson has another desk, as every senator does, rather small, made of mahogany, on the floor of the Senate chamber: the ultimate symbol of his position and, when not occupied, of his absence.

Johnson's is in the second row, between those of Mary Landrieu and Barbara Mikulski. Every morning, the same legislative paperwork is placed on Johnson's desk as on every other, as though he might be present. There is a sharpened pencil in the pencil slot.

Early one afternoon, the clerk calls the roll for another vote. It's on an amendment to the minimum wage bill.

" . . . Mr. Inhofe. Mr. Inouye. Mr. Isakson. Mr. Johnson. Mr. Kennedy. Mr. Kerry . . . "

The senators amble up to the clerk's desk and signal thumbs up or down.

Mr. Johnson is recorded as "not voting."

On Tuesday, the Democrats head to the Lyndon B. Johnson Room for the weekly caucus lunch.

"I think knowing Tim Johnson as I have, respecting him greatly, that I will convey the ideas as he would have them," Lautenberg says of filling Johnson's chair on Budget. "But it's an interpretation. I'll do my best."

"He has a great deal of technical competence, so we miss him," Mikulski says of the Appropriations subcommittee that Johnson is supposed to chair. "At the same time, our good friend Sen. Jack Reed is filling that role. So we can pick up the slack."

One morning, Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) gavels Banking to order. Dodd salutes the absent senator and wishes him a speedy return -- then gets down to business, a hearing on mass transit security.

Johnson is the second-ranking Democrat on Banking, after Dodd, and would ordinarily sit immediately to Dodd's right. But this morning Johnson's chair is not empty. It is occupied by Reed, whose lower rank in the pecking order should place him farther from the chairman.

Afterward, Reed says of Johnson: "He's one of those guys you like to emulate, because of his example as well as what he says. A lot is said around here. When you can provide the example, judgment and decency that he provides, those are very scarce commodities."

What about taking Johnson's chair this morning in Banking?

"I think it's less important where we sit than what we contribute," Reed says. "But I assure you, I'm just keeping that seat warm."