Ordinarily, when I use some version of the title of this blog entry, what follows is a scathing, mean-spirited, but entirely fair excoriation of someone whose politics happen to be morally repugnant. But not this time. He may have played ball for the wrong team, but Republican Sen. Thomas' death yesterday at age 74 due to leukemia stands him outside the grounds of such crass commentary. I didn't know the man's career well enough to justify the sort of vindictive obit that I've offered up for some other deceased politicians, and as I just wrote, like the Piranha Brothers, I'm a cruel man, but fair.

Among political junkies, though, like it or not, one of the first thoughts was "Who's Wyoming's governor?" The answer is that the governor, Dave Freudenthal, is a Democrat. But unlike in most states, this doesn't mean that Thomas' replacement will be from the opposite party. Even the Washington Post got this wrong at first (they corrected it in the above linked story), but it basically breaks down like this: the state Republican Party has 15 days to select three potential replacements for Thomas. The governor then selects one of those three people to serve until the next election. So, despite the fact that Thomas was re-elected in 2006, Wyoming will face another senatorial election in 2008. This will likely re-instate whomever the governor selects, though that's certainly no guarantee. In any case, without Thomas, the new senator may face a tougher re-election battle in 2008, but not much — Wyoming is one of the reddest states in the union, after all.