President Hastert

[JohnnyCougar]

That's all I want for my birthday and Christmas combined!

[blm]

1. Get rid of him and we have President Robert Byrd.

.

[KingFlorez]

6. Uh, no

Think President Ted Stevens

[blm]

9. I thought it was the most senior Senator.

.

[KingFlorez]

16. The most Senior Senator of the Majority Party

[Geoff R. Casavant]

31. Nope

The President Pro Tempore of the Senate, the Senate equivalent of the Speaker of the House -- it's an "elected" position, not necessarily the person who has been there longest.

[blm]

38. So after 2006 election it will be President Byrd.

.

[JohnnyCougar]

12. Ouch...

How far do we have to go to get someone even moderately reasonable?

[Blue_In_AK]

14. PORK for everybody.........

Yippee, woo-hoo.

[JohnnyCougar]

7. Is that true?

Is Byrd fourth in line for the presidency? Why Byrd?

Anyone have that information?

[KingFlorez]

8. If the Dems controlled the Senate, he'd be the Senate President

And the Senate President is fourth in sucession

[CarbonDate]

19. Dick Cheney is President of the Senate.

Ted Stevens is President pro tempore.

Also, Dennis Hastert will never be POTUS. As long as Hastert is Speaker of the House, that means that Republicans have control. As long as Republicans have control, Bush and Cheney will not be impeached. Ergo, no President Hastert.

Seriously, people who talk about a future "President Hastert" give the Republicans a lot more credit for integrity than I do....

[Alamom]

22. Order of Presidential Succession

original post by "Stand and Fight" 10/03.
Order of Presidential Succession


The Vice President Richard Cheney
• Speaker of the House John Dennis Hastert
• President pro tempore of the Senate(1) 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 Gutierrez(2)
• Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao(3)
• 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 Security(4) Michael Chertoff

(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.

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




http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=4958816&mesg_id=4958816

[KingFlorez]

2. No way

:puke: :puke: He's no better than Bush/Cheney

[karlrschneider]

3. Well, it's damn hard to imagine he could be any worse than Chimpy...

:eyes:

[SammyWinstonJack]

24. Not hard to imagine at all.

[linazelle]

33. Hastert is as mean or meaner...only good from him replacing

BUSH would be that BUSH is gone. And maybe Hastert will follow--seeing how all of them are criminals.

[liberal N proud]

4. I have heard many people here complain about him if he were

to become pres.
IMO: Can't be any worse than what we have now and a it would be with a mortally wounded repuke party.

[tk2kewl]

37. yep,,, it would be a dead duck presidency

never mind lame duck

[evlbstrd]

5. If Sibel Edmonds gets a fair hearing, that won't happen, either.

[understandinglife]

15. Roger that!

Peace.

[OKNancy]

10. Won't happen

even if Bush and Cheney are indicted. Here is what will happen
Cheney resigns first, Bush appoints ( could be anyone) Condi Rice as Vice President. Bush resigns, Condi takes over.

The succession is only in case of DEATH. ( the Constitution doesn't say death, it says can not serve, but history has proven that there is a way around it)

OTOH, anyone would be better that those two I guess. so you could still celebrate.

[mcscajun]

26. The succession is NOT only in case of death.

The order of Presidential Succession applies in ANY vacancy - not just death.

(a)
(1) If, by reason of death, resignation, removal from office, inability, or failure to qualify, there is neither a President nor Vice President to discharge the powers and duties of the office of President, then the Speaker of the House of Representatives shall, upon his resignation as Speaker and as Representative in Congress, act as President.
(2) The same rule shall apply in the case of the death, resignation, removal from office, or inability of an individual acting as President under this subsection.

(b) If, at the time when under subsection (a) of this section a Speaker is to begin the discharge of the powers and duties of the office of President, there is no Speaker, or the Speaker fails to qualify as Acting President, then the President pro tempore of the Senate shall, upon his resignation as President pro tempore and as Senator, act as President.
(c) An individual acting as President under subsection (a) or subsection (b) of this section shall continue to act until the expiration of the then current Presidential term, except that -

(1) if his discharge of the powers and duties of the office is founded in whole or in part on the failure of both the President-elect and the Vice-President-elect to qualify, then he shall act only until a President or Vice President qualifies; and
(2) if his discharge of the powers and duties of the office is founded in whole or in part on the inability of the President or Vice President, then he shall act only until the removal of the disability of one of such individuals.

(d)
(1) If, by reason of death, resignation, removal from office, inability, or failure to qualify, there is no President pro tempore to act as President under subsection (b) of this section, then the officer of the United States who is highest on the following list, and who is not under disability to discharge the powers and duties of the office of President shall act as President: Secretary of State, Secretary of the Treasury, Secretary of Defense, Attorney General, Secretary of the Interior, Secretary of Agriculture, Secretary of Commerce, Secretary of Labor, Secretary of Health and Human Services, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Secretary of Transportation, Secretary of Energy, Secretary of Education, Secretary of Veterans Affairs.
(2) An individual acting as President under this subsection shall continue so to do until the expiration of the then current Presidential term, but not after a qualified and prior-entitled individual is able to act, except that the removal of the disability of an individual higher on the list contained in paragraph (1) of this subsection or the ability to qualify on the part of an individual higher on such list shall not terminate his service.
(3) The taking of the oath of office by an individual specified in the list in paragraph (1) of this subsection shall be held to constitute his resignation from the office by virtue of the holding of which he qualifies to act as President.

(e)
(1) Subsections (a), (b), and (d) of this section shall apply only to such officers as are eligible to the office of President under the Constitution. Subsection (d) of this section shall apply only to officers appointed, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, prior to the time of the death, resignation, removal from office, inability, or failure to qualify, of the President pro tempore, and only to officers not under impeachment by the House of Representatives at the time the powers and duties of the office of President devolve upon them.
(2) During the period that any individual acts as President under this section, his compensation shall be at the rate then provided by law in the case of the President.

[tridim]

11. I know what you're saying, but..

do you really want this guy as the President?

[tatertop]

17. Not my first choice.

[tatertop]

18. Not my first choice.

[deadparrot]

13. It'd be far from perfect, but miles better than our current situation. nt

[movonne]

20. He is just a crooked as Delay and the rest of the repugs. I say we

must get rid of them all...

[truebrit71]

21. He is just as dirty as the rest of them...

..however, it will mean that the rethuglicans are done. A constitutional crisis the likes of which this country has never seen. There won't be a republican led ANYTHING for many, many moons...You won't be able to get elected as city rat-catcher if there's an (R) attached to your name....

If the indictments come down as many of us hope, the repignican party in its current mutation will be done...the religious nutjobs will again have no voice and be banished to the far edges of sanity and national conscience once more...

All of the things that have occurred in the last 5-6 years are as a direct result of the marriage of convenience between right-wing religious insanity, and insatiable corporate greed manifesting itself in the human form of Cokey McSmirk.

We must NEVER let this happen again, and the only way that Mr & Mrs Joe Six-pack are ever going to get it is if the whole lot of them are indicted and the putrid tub of lard from Illinois gets sworn in as interim president...Then, and ONLY then will they understand that the rethuglican party is rotten to its very core...

[cascadiance]

36. But if this truely so and the Rethugs are going down...

Do you want to leave them in power like that? We could have a reverse "Seven Days In May" where they try to retain power through more unsavory and non-Demoratic means if they feel desperate and power-hungry enough. Many of them probably realize if they lose power that some folks might be doing some serious jail time, unless the Dems cut a deal to let them loose on pardons if they let go of power.

[longship]

23. Don't forget Hastert will be a feckless, powerless pres.

Congress will be able to walk all over him. If 2006 goes well, which it likely will, Hastert will be an immense improvement over the one party power trip of the past five years.

[cascadiance]

27. If 2006 goes well, we could have Pelosi instead of Hastert!

That's what I'd like to happen. Build up the evidence so that EVERYONE knows that something is wrong right before the elections. Get a landslide for the Dems to take over both the Senate and the House, and once Pelosi takes the reigns of the House, THEN get Bush and Cheney impeached (and anyone else would be good measure but not necessary). Then we could clean house on the executive side! If either of Bush's new appointees to SCOTUS do anything illegal to try and "protect" him, then impeach their asses too!

A lot of things to happen between now and then, but one can dream!

[longship]

28. That would be optimum.

On the other hand, we should consider what happens if there's a meltdown where we have to move quickly. Things are going extraordinarily bad for Chimpy and his Repug allies. Things figure to get a lot worse before they get better. Such is the stuff of which incompetence is made. It really looks like a substantial number of Repug leaders will *all* be under indictment.

If the Repug CongressCritters start turning into real Republicans, we may have impeachment hearings before you can say, "It's hard work." In that case, we should just go ahead with them and take these guys out.

Putting it another way, if Congress impeaches Chimpy before 2007 Hastert and the Congressional Repugs will already be in big, big trouble.

[cascadiance]

35. We also need to impeach Bush and Cheney as a "package" deal after 2006...

We don't want to give the Rethugs any wiggle room in appointing an "interim" VP that might be someone they can find that isn't "impeachable" (like Gerald Ford was) but will allow them to hold onto the reins of power. We want it to go to Nancy Pelosi when she becomes Speaker of the House.

I'm trying to remember the Watergate situation. Had Nixon been impeached instead of resigned, could Ford have replaced him, or would it have gone to Speaker of the House then? I'm wondering if part of his "deal" was that he was allowed to appoint a successor to Agnew (and therefore himself) instead. That's the last thing we want. We need to find a way to get Pelosi in after the election after the Dems win the House and let her "clean house"! Hope we also get Arnold replaced then, so that someone like Angelides can pick a Dem to replace Pelosi with if she moves up to the pres slot too!

[kerry-is-my-prez]

25. It's Cheney, Hastert, Stevens, Condi, John Snow,Rumsfeld,Gonzales

I think our best bets would be Hastert. We don't want anypne who can turn around and run for Prez. They'd get a head start.


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

[Walt Starr]

29. Screw that! Win back the House, THEN IMPEACH CHENEY AND BUSH!!!!

Can you say President Pelosi?

[JohnnyCougar]

30. hmmm...that sounds more like it!

The first woman president!!!

[Independent_Liberal]

32. I look forward to his swearing-in.

:)

[kestrel91316]

34. And we won't have to listen to any more c--p about "mandates".