Sen. Johnson's health questioned

WASHINGTON, Sept. 8 (UPI) -- The uneven health of U.S. Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., has some wondering if he's up to the task of chairing the Senate Banking Committee, Politico reported.

While an unnamed Johnson staff member said, "the general state of Tim's health is good and improving all the time," and Senate colleagues contend his mind is as sharp as ever, Johnson's near-fatal brain hemorrhage three years ago has left him with slow and sometimes slurred speech and has forced him to miss some high-profile banking committee sessions this year, the publication said.

At times he has submitted written statements rather than speak, and reportedly avoids dramatic Senate floor fights, speaking there only occasionally to read short, scripted speeches into the Congressional Record, Politico said Tuesday

Johnson would become banking committee chairman if its current leader, Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., opts to replace the late Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., as chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.

"Mentally, he's 100 percent," an unnamed source close to Senate Democratic leaders told Politico. "He's slow, and he tires easily. But these jobs are jobs for marathon runners, not sprinters. These are jobs for people who are slow, anyway."