those consort names again

[Baker, John]

While these scenarios accurately reflect the provisions of the Presidential Succession Act of 1947, there is real uncertainty as to whether the Speaker of the House and President pro tempore of the Senate can constitutionally be in the line of succession.  That's right, we have purposefully structured our line of succession to maximize uncertainty at the very point when some catastrophe has removed both the President and the Vice President.  This concern, and some others, is spelled out at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_line_of_succession#Constitutional_concerns.
 
Let me also mention a third possible scenario.  In a closely contested election, the Obama/Biden ticket wins.  Following his election, President Obama names Bill Clinton Secretary of State.  While Bill is off bringing peace to Palestine, terrorists take out Obama and Biden.  The Speaker and President pro tempore, to avoid constitutional difficulties, waive their claims to the office (or, if you prefer some small hint of plausibility, they die in the same attack).  Bill then becomes President; the constitution says he can't be elected President again, but it says nothing about whether he can assume the office upon the death of the President.
 
 
John Baker

________________________________

From: American Dialect Society on behalf of Joel S. Berson
Sent: Mon 9/1/2008 12:18 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: those consort names again



At 9/1/2008 06:46 AM, Geoff Nathan wrote:
>...
>FWIW there are 3/4 million hits for 'first gentleman', including the
>speculatively purchased domain thefirstgentleman.org, reserved for Bill
>Clinton as he becomes one this coming January.  Oh well...

Well. let's see ...

Scenario 1:
      Republicans McCain and Palin are elected, with exit polls
showing that women Democrats, distressed that their party had not
nominated a woman, were the deciding factor in several battleground states.
      However, they return to their traditional base in state
elections and the Democrats retain control of the House and Senate.
      After the agony of having to eliminate so many outstanding
white male vice-presidential possibilities, the 72-year-old McCain
succumbs to the stress of being forced also to choose a cabinet, and
dies soon after inauguration.
      At the first meeting of the new Congress, the Democrats of the
Senate, in an attempt to regain their historic electoral advantage
among women, elect Hilary Clinton President Pro Tempore of the Senate.
      Not long thereafter, a pro abortion-rights zealot assassinates
Palin.  Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi becomes Acting President.
      Encouraged by one powerful woman's exit from the stage, a
member of a male supremacist organization offs Nancy Pelosi.
      Under the Presidential Succession Act of 1947, Hilary Clinton
becomes President.

Scenario 2:
      Democrats Obama and Biden are elected, with exit polls showing
that a massive increase in registration by African Americans helped
them take some traditionally Republican southern states.
      As a result of this and other factors, the Democrats
dramatically increase their majorities in Congress.
      Robert Byrd of West Virginia, President Pro Tempore of the
Senate, resigns before the new Congress convenes; the gossip is
alternately that he was so elated at the election of a Democratic
president that he decided it was finally time to leave the podium,
and that he was severely depressed at the elevation of a black.
       Vice-President elect Biden, celebrating both the day and his
election too exuberantly on his 66th birthday, November 20, 2008,
dies of another brain aneurysm.  The fears -- or was it hopes? -- of
Fox News come to pass (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,409941,00.html).
     The Democrats of the Senate, to demonstrate that there really is
no glass ceiling in their party as well as in that chamber, elect
Hilary Clinton as Byrd's successor; many of the few remaining male
Republican senators, anxious about their potential future defeat
should they oppose a woman, actually vote for Clinton.
      A white supremacist assassinates President Obama before he has
had time to nominate a successor to Biden and the Senate to confirm
his choice.  Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi becomes Acting President.
      His previous rage at Pelosi's (former) power to suppress the
white male Republicans of the House now augmented by additional
resentment of her vast new powers, a Republican white male
supremacist offs Pelosi.
      Under the Presidential Succession Act of 1947, Hilary Clinton
becomes President.

[I may have misinterpreted some of the complex conditions for
presidential succession, and therefore been amiss in my chronology,
but I am sure any defects can be corrected.]

Joel

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