Presidential succession

[hyphenate]

Here is the lineup, for those who are interested, of who would succeed Bush if we ever could impeach him.

The Vice President Richard Cheney
Speaker of the House John Dennis Hastert
President pro tempore of the Senate¹ Ted Stevens
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
Secretary of the Treasury John Snow
Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales
Secretary of the Interior Gale A. Norton
Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns
Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez²
Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao³
Secretary of Health and Human Services Mike Leavitt
Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Alphonso Jackson
Secretary of Transportation Norman Yoshio Mineta
Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman
Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings
Secretary of Veterans Affairs Jim Nicholson
Secretary of Homeland Security⁴ Michael Chertoff


NOTE: An official cannot succeed to the Presidency unless that person meets the Constitutional requirements.

1. The president pro tempore presides over the Senate when the vice president is absent. By tradition the position is held by the senior member of the majority party.
2. Carlos Gutierrez was born in Cuba and is ineligible.
3. Elaine Chao was born in Taiwan and is ineligible.
4. In late July 2005, the Senate passed a bill moving the Homeland Security secretary to number 8 on the list. The bill is awaiting House approval.


http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0101032.html

[yy4me]

1. Its enough to turn my stomach!

Certainly goes from bad to worse. Current idiot-in-chief has no brain, imagine what one of the next in line can do? It scares the daylights out of me!

[William769]

2. Not very reassuring is it.

[rurallib]

3. Who's next? The next one must be a decent human.

How far down under this pile of scum do we find Harry Reid or Nancy Pelosi?

[stevedeshazer]

4. Makes Alexander Haig look good.

[tanyev]

5. Never realized it before, but once you get past the House

and the Senate, not a single one of them has actually been elected by the people. And what do you do when all have them have participated in a criminal conspiracy?

[SaveElmer]

7. Actually...

I think Norman Mineta was a congressman...and is a Democrat if I am not mistaken!

[tanyev]

9. Well, yeah, but not elected to the position in which he is currently

serving. What's to prevent a president from stacking the deck with crazed, obsessively loyal ideologues? Oh, wait....

[IntravenousDemilo]

6. Has anyone here seen "Kind Hearts and Coronets"?

That's what this reminds me of. You'll have to impeach the entire cabinet for the crime of complicity.

[Angry Girl]

8. But 2006 can change Hastert to a Dem, no? n/t

[hyphenate]

10. We can only hope!

That's what we need to aim for.

[rzemanfl]

11. Yes, and I am hoping some congressperson from a state with

a Democratic governor will resign so that Kerry or Gore can be appointed to fill the vacancy. Then we can have a President who was actually elected after * and Cheney are impeached.

[kma3346]

12. Interesting about Chertoff moving up in the list

I didn't know that it wasn't a done deal yet. Here's another interesting list that includes a goodly number of these people (21 administration officials involved in Plame leak):

http://www.thinkprogress.org/leak-scandal

[cassiepriam]

13. I am now officially against impeachment. nfm