In college, I read a book by Sen. Birch Bayh, who was instrumental in passing the 25th Amendment. He suggested, among other things, that the state governors be added to the line of presidential succession, after the VP, Speaker of the House, President pro tem of the Senate, and the Cabinet.
There is a small but definite chance that a catastrophic event (manmade or natural) might strike Washington, D.C. and kill everyone in the line of succession. Bayh proposed adding the governors - from the biggest state to the smallest, in order of population according to the last census - to the line. He argued that governors have executive experience which would obviously be useful in a President (and in recent years, of course, we’ve elected several former governors: Carter, Reagan, Clinton and Dubya) and that it would be better than having some unelected Federal bureaucrats vying for the Presidency after a national disaster.
California’s the biggest state right now and Ah-nuld, as a naturalized but not “natural born” citizen, wouldn’t be eligible, nor would Gov. Jennifer Granholm (sp?) of Michigan, but 48 others would be, and could be good insurance for the continuity of the Federal government.
One imnediate drawback would be that several states, some quite large, have pretty do-nothing governorships, in which the state’s chief executive is some bozo/party hack whom the state’s voters aren’t promoting to a position of particular responsibility. It would be pretty bad if we were to learn that the governor of Texas, say, were all of a sudden to become Commander-in-Chief. You could see all sorts of absurd and tragic wars starting.
I’ve read a science fiction book (can’t remember the name) in which the order of Presidential succession did go to the governors. I believed they used the order in which the states were admitted as the order of succession. I’d support this. True, one can’t assume that the Governor of Delaware would be a good President. Still, I’d prefer this over California/Texas/New York/Florida.
Still, the OP assumes the destruction of the Federal government. I believe he is asking if using the Governors of the Several States is better than a potential mess of some undersecretary of state attempting to claim the Presidency.
Interesting scenario. Maybe the thing to do would be to have a Convention of all the (surviving) governors, during which an Acting President and Cabinet would be selected until we could get elections organized, etc. I think that would be preferable to martial law, which seems the only other viable way to keep things under control in such an emergency. Just spitballing.
Wow, that’s actually a really good idea. You get people with executive experience and it’s only temporary, so you’re not depriving 14-or-so states of their governors. I do think you’d want to put some provision in place to prevent whichever party has the majority of governorships at the time (which could be the opposite of the obliterated federal government) from seizing full control, however.
Generally I think this is a good idea, but can we wait until after NY State Governor, George Pataki, is out of office? Since Ahh-nold is ineligible, that means the nod goes to Pataki, right? Take it from a NYer, that would not be agood thing, unless, of course, the disaster that killed the President, etc. was a nuclear strike. Pataki could reverse a nuclear winter just from the hot air that comes out of his mouth.
That seems a bit too *ad hoc * to me. One of the benefits of having a clear Presidential line of succession is that we know, ahead of time, who becomes President if worse comes to worst. Personalities and ambition doesn’t really enter into it. Getting a convention together under what would probably be very chaotic circumstances, with the likelihood of politicking, influence-peddling and log-rolling etc. to choose an Acting President and Cabinet, doesn’t seem as advisable to me as having a line of succession established at the outset.
Keep in mind though that this solution is only temporary. They’d basically be a transitional government with the sole mission of managing the recovery of whatever disaster caused the situation in the first place and organizing the next presidential election. If Congress was still operational, you could even deprive the transitional gubernatorial government of veto power so as to ensure that those elected have the most power.
I understand where both of you are coming from, but we’re talking about a hypothetical situation that makes 9-11 and this hurricane looks like minor annoyances. In this case, I think that we need a clear and uncontested leader immediately, and I’d rather it be the Governor of Bum Fuck Egypt than the Secretary of Underwater Basket-Weaving.
IMHO
[OT] Regarding Arnold, I think that the rule should be slightly amended to say that you have to have been a citizen for 35 years. Again, IM (ignorant) HO [/OT]
I would say that Cabinet members are more deserving of the title “bozo/party hack” and they’re in the line of succession. The idea that Rod Paige could have become president when he was Sec’y of Education should be enough to scare anyone.
Well, the Cabinet members do get the job because someone in the Administration thinks they’re capable of administering something. This cannot always be said for a first-time elected Governor, whose only qualification might be personal charm, high name recognition factor, luck in drawing a univerally-hated opponent, a huge war-chest, etc.
A mechanism already exists, though. The governors can appoint caretaker senators (as has been done numerous times in the event of a death or resignation of a senator), who could then elect from among themselves a President Pro Tempore, who could then assume the office and duties of President of the United States.
This may be a bit cumbersome following a major disaster, but it would serve. One hopes that in the meantime the military is (A) mostly intact to repel foreign opportunism, and (B) disinclined to opportunistically seize power itself. If the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs is still alive and particularly level-headed, he’ll defer immediately to the new Commander in Chief and order the rest of the forces to do the same.
Something akin to the OP’s scenario almost happened at the inaugeration of JFK. The ceremony took place on a temporary wooden platform built on the side of the Capitol and one of the many electrical cables feeding the various lights and television cameras started to smoke. Had the platform caught fire, the only escape was a narrow door leading back into the Capitol. Then head of the Secret Service, U.E. Baughman, wrote in his memoirs (Secret Service Chief) that he felt severely tempted to interrupt the ceremony three times out of concern that a fire would kill the new President and Vice-President, the outgoing Prez and Veep, and many senior members of the Supreme Court and Congress. Scary stuff, and practically nobody knew it was happening.