those consort names again

Mon Sep 1 21:48:59 UTC 2008

At 9/1/2008 03:45 PM, Baker, John wrote:
>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.

Most of these "concerns" would not affect the line of succession up
to and including the President Pro Tempore of the Senate.  An earlier
paragraph, "History of succession law set by Congress", in the same
article notes about the Presidential Succession Act of 1792 "The
compromise that was worked out established the
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President_pro_tempore_of_the_United_States_Senate>President
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President_pro_tempore_of_the_United_States_Senate>pro
tempore of the Senate was next in line of succession after the Vice
President, followed by the Speaker of the House of
Representatives."  Thus original intent established that these
officers elected by Congress, the representatives chosen by the
people, should be first in the line of succession.  Perhaps I should
add an additional line to both scenarios:

      A suit instituted by Alexander Haig and Henry Kissinger, both
strong supporters of executive privilege although ostensibly from
different political parties, and surviving in political influence
nearly as long as Senator Byrd and longer than John McCain, that
questioned the right of the Speaker and President Pro Tempore to
succeed since they might be from different parties than the president
and vice president, failed when a constructionist Supreme Court, with
a majority opinion written by Justice Scalia, ruled 5-4 that the
original intent of the Founding Fathers was clearly to place the
representatives of the representatives of the people first in the
line of succession after the vice president.  Scalia compared this
right of the people with its right to bear arms.

>  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.

But this would not make him First Gentleman.  (Of course, you could
have Hilary appointed Secretary of State; she would have to have been
confirmed by the Senate in order to be in line.)

Joel

>
>
>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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