The idea of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) ascending to the presidency seems outlandish, little more than a Fox News fever dream or #Resistance fan fiction.
it would be constitutional, if wholly undemocratic, for Republican legislatures to forego the election
Excellent article — well written and very informative.
But it’s forgo, not forego.
Under Scenario #1, won’t Pence just break the Senate tie and vote for himself as VP? Thus, come January 20, he becomes acting president until the House selects a president.
Pelosi is up for reelection this year too — so if there were no congressional elections by January, she is also out of office
Only california can cancel or postpone a california election, and why would they do that? In addition to 50-something congresscritters, there are 10s of thousands of state and local positions to be filled, down to the Needles CA dog catcher.
Scenario #2: A long, litigious morass inflamed by Trump’s conspiracy theorizing
Did someone say “Trump” and “more ass?”
Please stop posting hideous pictures of monsters. People have to scroll past this shit.
I thought that we had forwent picking on TPM’s spelling.
The succession clause in Article II is superseded by the terms of the 20th Amendment, which specifically says “Congress may by law provide for the case wherein neither a President elect nor a Vice President elect shall have qualified, declaring who shall then act as President…” Thus the 1947 statute is the act of Congress on this issue, and the Speaker would become the acting president.
Whatever happens, the Maginot Line will hold.
How long have you been waiting to unload that one?
Replying to myself, I guess it comes down to how to interpret this clause: “and a majority of the whole number shall be necessary for a choice.” So does this mean you need 51 senators voting for the VP, or 50 senators plus 1 VP voting for the VP. So maybe there is some room for Constitution crisis on top of what would already be a major Constitutional crisis to be sure.
It’s Spelled FarGo. And it capitoLiZed!
I don’t think many of us realized how much of our institutional conduct and stability was normative rather than statutory but we sure has hell can see it now: one by one the guardrails of democracy have fallen before the authoritarian press. I assume just about anything is possible at this point.
Pity it won’t happen. I’ve liked Biden more and more as he’s settled into his candidacy, but there’s no doubt in my mind that Nancy would go for the jugular with these Trumpsters as Biden never would. Plus, I wouldn’t put it past her to pull a fast one and make DC and Puerto Rico states. Under her, the House has already taken the first step toward DC statehood.
I think you’re right.
However likely or unlikely this is, I’m not going to waste time on it and instead focus on viable approaches and remedies, the main one being retaking the WH and senate and expanding the court by 4 seats, and implementing a bunch of other reforms like making DC a state and passing massive voting and election reform. My real worry is that, with the stakes so high for both sides, one crazy, corrupt and arrogant, the other decent, sane and brow-beaten, the other side will pull out all the stops to prevent this, including the unthinkable (some of which for all we know has already happened and we just don’t know it, don’t ask me what I mean but think PW & well, never mind).
Or if this is intended to refer to her not being re-elected as Speaker, I think that implausible. Only red states might go along with a white house order to postpone or cancel the election. Meanwhile the blue states have their elections and send their reps to congress, resulting in an even larger blue majority in the House.
It is largely normative and based on some unwritten assumptions that were made by men of reason in an age of reason. I don’t think they could have foreseen the rise of Fascism that turns all norms upside down in the name of power.
That’s what is going on.
Exactly. I can think of no situation where Trump leaves the White House to let Pelosi walk in. If there enough chaos to produce even a small opening, they are going to try to bluster their way to extending the present term via extra-Constitutional means.
Note that for Scenario #3, Pelosi doesn’t need to be re-elected (although she certainly will) to be named Speaker by the incoming House. Whoever the House votes as Speaker immediately becomes next in line of succession to the presidency, and it doesn’t have to be a member of the House. So they could vote Biden as Speaker and let him ascend to the presidency.