I’ve just been watching Cardinal O’Connor’s funeral mass. As most of you who’ve been following the story already know, President and Mrs. Clinton were there, as were Vice President and Mrs. Gore.
I’d always thought that the President and VP were never scheduled to attend the same event at the same time (not counting those held at the White House), because of the tremendous security risk involved. However, someone I work with told me that the restriction only applies to travel overseas, though he did stress that the pair of them will never be on the same flight.
So how does this actually work? Is there some policy about who goes where; is it all that unusual for them both to attend a high-profile funeral (or whatever)?
Thanks in advance for your insights…
Yes, I’ve always heard that, too. But I suppose that in an election year, all bets are off.
I don’t know there’s actually a policy as such…or, rather, the policy is probably whatever the President says it is.
I think it’s safe to say the Prez and VP attending events at the same time is a bad idea, and it shouldn’t have been done in this case. The reason it WAS done is pure politics, of course. Al Gore is running for president, so he wanted to be seen there. Hillary Clinton is running for senator from NY State, so she wanted to be seen there–and she couldn’t very well attend such an event without her husband. So they played the politics, and hoped there was no one out there with a bomb and an urge to make Dennis Hastert president.
I haven’t heard of a prohibition on President and Vice President at the same event. What I have heard is that it’s a no-no for everyone in the line of succession to be at the same event. So during the state of the union address, one member of the cabinet has to watch the thang on TV from another location. One example was Manuel Lujan, Secretary of the Interior under Bush, who watched the thing from his home town.
I agree that in this case it was pure politics-- in fact it surprises me that I didn’t see George W., but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t there. I’d heard he was supposed to be, I just couldn’t pick him out of the crowd.
The whole line of succession thing intrigues me. What’s the breakdown after Pres, VP, Secretary of State? Or am I wrong on the Secretary part?
Answering part of my own question-- I’m wrong on the Secretary part, whoops.
I know Clinton and Gore were both at the memorial service for the 6 Worcester firefighters last December. If I remember, Gore didn’t speak, he just sat there (typical). Clinton did indeed speak, however. But, back to the OP, I think they can be at the same event, just not arrive the same way, but thats just a WAG.
I’m pretty sure that the President of the United States can go wherever the hell he wants. Ditto for the VP.
It might not be a good idea, but I’m sure there is no rule about it.
The restriction is that they can’t fly in the same aircraft.
Also, the line of succession, very briefly, is VP, Speaker of the House, and then I believe, Secretary of State. Interesting tidbit is that Madeline Albright is the closest woman to be President as far as succession goes, but she’s ineligible because she wasn’t born in the US. After that I think it goes through the cabinet.
Yeah, Oblong’s got it right, but the President pro tempore of the U.S. Senate is in between the Speaker of the House and the Secretary of State. The Cabinet goes more or less in order in which the Departments were created, but the Secretary of Defense inherits the Secretary of War’s previous position (it wouldn’t make much sense to demote the DoD when it combined functions of the previous War and Navy Departments). So the line of succession is:
- Bill Clinton
- Albert Gore
- Dennis Hastert
- Strom Thurmond (that’s right, the guy who ran for President in 1948)
State - Madeline Albright - not eligible to the Presidency
- Treasury
- Defense
- Attorney General - Janet Reno
- Interior
- Agriculture
- Commerce
- Labor
- HHS - Donna Shalala
- HUD
- Transportation
- Energy
- Education
- Veterans Affairs
And yes, my knowledge of current events is so lame that I have forgotten who’s currently in most of these positions.
Here’s a completed line of succession:
Albert Gore
Dennis Hastert
Strom Thurmond
Treasury Lawrence Summers
Defense William Cohen
Justice Janet Reno
Interior Bruce B. Rabbit
Agriculture Dan Glickman
Commerce William Daley
Labor Alexis Herman
HHS Donna Shalala
HUD Andrew Cuomo
Transportation Rodney Slater
Energy Bill Richardson
Education Richard Riley
VA Togo D. West, Jr.
At least until recently, hasn’t there been some high-ranking general who has been designated as in charge of the government in case of an all-out nuclear exchange that wipes out all of the above leaders and Cabinet members?
DHR
>>>Doghouse Reilly wrote: “At least until recently, hasn’t there been some high-ranking general who has been designated as in charge of the government in case of an all-out nuclear exchange that wipes out all of the above leaders and Cabinet
members?”<<<
Not constitutionally, and not by any act of Congress that I’m aware of. As a legal matter, in such a case the House of Representatives would elect a new Speaker. That Speaker would then succeed to the presidency, and fill the other vacancies in the usual manner.
Of course, in the case you are thinking of legalities would probably go out the window, at least for awhile. I suspect there would be some sort of junta that took over for a time, composed of generals who could garner enough support. How long that would last–and how much controlling the federal government would really mean at that point–is an open question.
Oooh. That brings up one of my favorite conundrums: how deep has the line of succession gone for the presidency?
In 1849, the inauguration of the Zachary Taylor was delayed by a day, as the inauguration would have fallen on a Sunday, and the President pro pempore, David Rice Atchison, claimed he automatically took the position. What did he do? “I went to bed.” However, his term as pro tempore also expired at noon on that Sunday, so the story ain’t so cut and dried.
From noon on March 4, 1849 until Taylor’s inauguration th following day it would appear that there are a number of viable options for who was actually President:
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The outgoing President Polk. He had both the lack of a term limit and a single four-year term to back him up.
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Taylor. The oath of office is now understood in the eyes of today’s Senate to be automatically assumed at the appointed time, despite the formalities of oath of office. Nobody had qualified that then.
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Atchison. His claim is not so good, considering the above. Nevertheless, he proudly announced that he had run the “honestest” administration in the history of the United States. An administration which may be based on an untruth. That’s America for you.
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My favorite dark horse, the Secretary of the Senate. It was this person who called the Senate to order the following day to allow the Vice President and Senators to take their oaths of office. I don’t know who he or she was, but that person at least did something, unlike anyone else mentioned above. Sadly, I suspect that the Senate was called to order after Taylor had already done his business. Nevertheless, I think it is possible that the Secretary of the Senate might, for a few taps of the gavel, might have been President, and might have held some sort of fleeting authority for the previous day.
Now that it everything is regulated to hell and back, it is possible for the line of succession to be determined practically to the second. George Bush first took presidential powers on July 12, 1985 for about nine hours while Ronald Reagan was under anasthesia. In that time, according to this source he managed to knock himself unconscious while playing tennis and also went to bed. Considering the above evidence, not to mention Eisenhower, Ford, and Reagan, sleeping seems to be one of the primary activities of many Presidents.
Here’s the Senate’s story: http://www.senate.gov/learning/min_2j.html