Who will run London in his absence?
Photograph: Chris Young/PA Ken Livingstone is, by far, the most high-profile scalp of the Standards Board for England.
Last month the local government watchdog reprimanded the slightly less well known Pete Allen, a Labour councillor in Hull, for objecting to a park and ride bus scheme which would go past his house - without declaring an interest.
Today's suspension over the 'Nazi' jibe he made at an Evening Standard reporter - which appears to have taken everyone from Ken on down by surprise - is an entirely different matter. It leaves the country's capital - a city of nine million people - essentially rudderless for four weeks.
A slap on the wrist was the most that was expected, if Ken was found guilty at all.
As news of the verdict came in, the mayor's office was in pandemonium - a simple request to confirm that Labour deputy mayor Nicky Gavron would now be taking over the reigns of power was met with a panicked, "We don't know - we'll call you back".
Fortunately, the one biggest formal duty of the mayor - putting together a budget - has already been passed.
Local elections in London (not for the mayor and assembly itself, but for the 33 boroughs) are take place on May 4. The Labour mayor was supposed to spearhead his party's campaign. That's a party political problem for Labour, not a concern of the adjudication panel, but with Labour fearing wipe out in many of the boroughs, the political mischief his opponents will make of his plight, are manna from heaven for the Liberal Democrats and Tories.
But love him or hate him, most of the country thought Mr Livingstone handled the suicide attacks of July 7 last year with authority, aplomb and a great deal of genuine moral outrage that the city with which - more than any other politician - he will forever be linked with had been attacked.
If, God forbid, something similar happens between March 1 and April 1, will the city and nation rally round to stand-in Nicky Gavron, once dubbed "the quango queen", in quite the same way. And does she have the experience to be quite as effective?
Essentially the adjudication panel is the final buck-stopping place for complaints about councillors' behaviour made to the Standards Board for England. A separate body, they were both set up just five years ago by the Labour government.
So who are the three-man panel who have left London deprived of its democratically elected mayor?
Step forward David Laverick, chair of the adjudication panel of the Standards Board.
A former solicitor, his daytime job is as the pensions ombudsman, responsible for monitoring complaints about private pensions schemes abuse - running at around 4,000 a year.
His two sidekicks are Darryl Stephenson, who, as you will no doubt remember, is the former chief executive of East Riding council.
The other household name in his own household is Peter Norris, according to the adjudication panel's press officer, a "former civil servant and currently an independent consultant for local authorities and children's charities". He was also - how could you forget? - a member of the department of constitutional affairs committee on appointments to the lay judiciary.
All three are unelected, appointed to the post by the lord chancellor.
Are they entitled to override the wishes the 828,380 voters who put Ken back in city hall for the second time in June 2004?
"That's not something we comment on," says the press officer for the (somewhat strangely) Harrogate-based adjudication panel.
