Cornyn Bill Rearranges Presidential Succession

[kskiska]

WASHINGTON --Legislation introduced this month by Senate Republicans, including Texan John Cornyn, would dramatically change the way presidential succession works.

Should the president become incapacitated along with the vice president, members of Congress would be ineligible for the top leadership position in favor of Cabinet members.

"We really didn't have a workable plan if the terrorist attacks of 9/11 had been successful and the heroic passengers had not stopped that plane in Pennsylvania (that the FBI has said was aimed at Washington)," Cornyn said. "We began looking at exactly what would happen, and the more we scratched away, the more problems we saw."

At this time, if a president and vice president were killed, the speaker of the House would become president. Next in line would be the president pro tem of the Senate, a senior member of the majority party.

Cornyn and other lawmakers, along with a number of scholars and researchers, think the law is outdated and may be unconstitutional.

more…
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/politics/2418720

[Taeger]

1. Unelected

There is something insidiously wrong about replacing ELECTED (or psuedo-elected in Bush's case) officials with UNELECTED officials. What I see from Cornyn is the blueprint for any future "necessary" coups.

[Eloriel]

3. Exactly

Besides, I thought succession was in the Constitution?

[SaveElmer]

7. Nope ... 25th Amendment

Only specifies how the Vice-President would succeed him. And provides for replacing the Vice-President. That's it. The rest is specified in the law they are attempting to change.

[happyslug]

8. No.

The Constitution only says the Vice President succeeds the President. Any succession after the VP is to be set by congress and has been since 1789.

[bobthedrummer]

12. There IT is!

Yep, not representatives of the people but cronyism.

[DenverDem]

2. More treason from the wrong wingers.

"Cornyn and other lawmakers, along with a number of scholars and researchers, think the law is outdated and may be unconstitutional."

Cornyn is unconstitutional. His defeat of Ron Kirk was election fraud.

[Bridget Burke]

10. Many of us were surprised when Ron Kirk lost.....

He'd had success as mayor of Dallas & was quite moderate. A conservative (old-school, not neo-) co-worker planned to vote for him.

Was it just a coincidence that electronic voting was first used for that election? --here in Harris County (Houston) & in Austin, I believe.

[DenverDem]

15. No coincidence that BBV made its premiere in that election.

A preview of the treasonous fraud to come in 04.

[kodi]

4. insane. they want unelected officials before elected reps as potus

it removes completely any popularly elected official succeeding as potus before an unelected offical who is approved by congress.

if this passes, then there should be dramatically increased scutiny in congress of those who are nominated as cabinet secretaries.

[Johnyawl]

5. Are we just going to go in circles with this?

When the constitution was written the line of succession passed through the cabinet. (next in line after the VP was the SoS). that was amended after Kennedy's assaination, because of concerns about the Presidency passing to unelected officials.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

6. Madness. This is nothing but a succession plan to maintain the...

...NeoCon Junta of December 2000.

No doubt in my mind that the supposrters of this line of thought are all from the far rightwing of the political spectrum.

So, who would be next in line? Sec of State? Sec of Defense? Homeland Security? Frightening.

[aquart]

11. Gosh, George....

It would pay for them to have you killed.

Sure you want this bill?

[kskiska]

21. Here's the lineup

[zbdent]

9. Hmm, if that flight wasn't shot down over Penn. (as conspiracy theorists

believe), and the passengers weren't able to down it (as the "official story" goes), what chance do you think there was that a message would have been sent to Senate/House Repubs to "evacuate the Repubs" immediately under the guise of a recess "special meeting"?

There goes my tinfoil again!

[Mountainman]

13. Bush was no where near Washington and Chaney was hiding in a bunker

I think the cabinet members have a secure bunk house underground somewhere.
What they would do is set up a shadow government with their chosen leader and then have a terrorist attack kill everyone else. Buda bing dictatorship and martial law ruled by neocons.

[zbdent]

20. My point was that the Dems would be eliminated, with a long time before

the "population" could "elect" new reps.

Maybe not all of them, but enough to stop anything using a "supermajority" of the surviving members.

Plus, weren't the Repukes crowing about how the "governorships" were tilted in their favor at the time, too? A governor would appoint the Reps and Senators until an "election" could be held.

[CaptainClark23]

14. Tying in AGAIN

No, not just a potential problem that needs to be resolved, but they tie in to the "Heroic Actions" of 9.11.

I've fucking had it with these bastards. This is the final piece for me. This is no longer about party politics, this is a war for the future of the United States of America.

[happyslug]

16. A little History

Prior to Truman's Administration the succession after the VP went through the Cabinet. Truman disliked the idea that someone who had never ran for office may become president so he asked congress to make the Speaker of the House his Successor (Remember Truman had been FDR's VP, so when Truman became President if anything would happen to him his Secretary of State would have become President since he had no VP). This lack of a VP caused some problems for Truman, for example he wanted to fly to the Potsdam Conference but his cabinet feared that if his plane went down you would have a constitutional crisis on they hands, so he had to go by ship. This lack of a VP hurt Truman till his 1948 election when he was elected with Alben Barkley as his VP.

When President Eisenhower had his Heart Attack he left his VP Richard Nixon act as his agent i.e. act as President. They was some question as to the constitutionality of this but no one wanted to push the issue.

When President Wilson had his stroke in 1920, his wife ran the Presidency till the end of his term (She had a dislike for Wilson's VP believing he did not support Wilson's League of Nations. For this she is referred to as the "first female President" for everyone in Washington knew who was running the White House and it was NOT Wilson or his VP.). One side note, the Republicans controlled the Congress at that time (Having run control in the 1918 mid-term elections) and the GOP leadership told the VP they would support him if he made an effort to take over from Edith Wilson. The VP declined, saying the country was NOT endangered.

Since Truman's time the third in line for the Presidency has been the Speaker of the House. Now in 1967 the XXV amendment was adopted. In the XXV amendment the above problems were addressed. First, if the office of the VP becomes empty, the President can appoint a VP who must be confirmed by BOTH houses of Congress (This is how Gerald Ford Became VP and than President in early 1974 and how Nelson Rockefeller became VP later in 1974.

The Second thing addressed was when a President becomes incapacitated, the procedure are simple, if the President says he is disabled, the VP will act as President. If the VP and the Majority of the Cabinet votes that the President is disabled than the VP will act as President. If the President disagree with his VP and Cabinet than Congress will decide the matter by 2/3 vote (i.e. the President is the President unless 2/3 of BOTH houses of Congress decides the President is incapacitated).

Copy of the US Constitution on Find Law
http://www.findlaw.com/casecode/constitution/

The XXV Amendment on Find Law:
http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data/constitution/amendment25/

[peacetalksforall]

19. Background info like this makes DU 'ers stronger.

Thank you. There is nothing like getting educated.

[peacetalksforall]

17. They are going to rewrite the constitution, one sentence

at a time. Stop them!

Whites took away the country from the natives of the land.

Let's call a truce right now - and divide the country. Make it two. With no blood shed. No reservations or camps. No wars.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

18. American Enterprise Institue is behind this. Why am I not surprised.