All South Dakotans are thinking of their senior U.S. Senator Tim Johnson this morning, as we await good news from his surgery overnight. The senator, who has been in Congress since 1986, suffered stroke-like symptoms yesterday during a conference call with South Dakota news reporters.

Bill Harlan of the Rapid City Journal was on the conference call and wrote this account of it on the newspaper's blog yesterday:

I was on the conference call this morning with Tim. He really did seem to be having trouble — especially in retrospect, when I listened to the tape. This morning, however, I put it down to fatigue or maybe a faulty telephone connection on my end. There were LONG pauses. Tim repeated “uh” and “and” many times in a row. He got lost in a sentence. He chuckled once in frustration. He even offered a self-deprecating “well said” after failing to finish a sentence.

He also talked about looking forward to seeing grandkids in Sioux Falls over the holidays. He finished the conference call like a trooper, asking if there were anymore questions and playing the auctioneer. “Then once, twice? OK. Thank You. Merry Christmas.”

And that was that. I headed down to the rez for some reporting. Next thing I know I have messages from my wife and from C-SPAN about the “possible stroke.”

Harlan's recap shows the real Johnson, even under duress. Seldom, we can say with certainty, has the U.S. senate had such a gentleman in its midst. We knew him when he was a young attorney in Vermillion and then a state legislator in Pierre. He is the same today – a little grayer, more serious perhaps – but still Tim.