Happy August 4, it is now SAFE for the GOP to announce if McConnell is actually dead or merely incapacitated and incapable of returning to work. But McConnell is not the first Senator whose seat was held vacant. In 1856 Senator Charles Sumner was brutally beaten on the floor of the Senate by a Representative Preston Brooks of South Carolina. Massachusetts held Sumner’s seat EMPTY for three years and he was even re-elected during this time. He returned to work in 1859, but some reports say that he was not cognitively the same. Nevertheless he held his seat until his death in 1874. I am not saying this is a good way to govern, but I guess there is precedent? That said, I think we need to change that. People of any state should not be unrepresented in the Senate or House for large periods of time no matter the reason.