I am aware, of course, of the debated cognitive state of US President Reagan prior to his Alzheimers diagnosis. I am also aware of Woodrow Wilson's stroke, which left his Wife to manage many of his affairs. However, I am interested in the suggestion in some writing in recent years that the Senate has seen a number of serving members continuing in Office, guided by Staffers, well beyond the decline of their capabilities. I would like to know if this phenomenon has been recorded on the historical record.
On pages 81-83 of Master of the Senate, Robert Caro writes briefly about the gerontocracy caused by the Senate's seniority system, which strongly incentivized senators to stay in office as long as possible. Exemplary anecdotes include:
Hiram Johnson, nearing eighty, being barely able to speak during Foreign Relations Committee hearings.
Kenneth McKellar fainting during a speech on the Senate floor, causing an observer to muse that, given the concern of the other old men around him, death would never be far from senators' minds.
Arthur Capper becoming ranking member of the Agriculture Committee in 1940 at the age of seventy-five, already too deaf and frail to be effective, then becoming chairman years later when he was borderline nonfunctional.
Carter Glass becoming Appropriations Committee chairman in 1932, when he was 74, and then remaining as chair for well over a decade, ignoring all calls to resign even as he was too ill to leave his hotel suite for years on end.
The senator who filled in for Glass to run the Appropriations Committee (Kenneth McKellar again) would, more and more frequently as the 1940s wore on, pound his gavel to begin a hearing after it had already been underway for some hours.