On Speeding Up the Presidential Succession

"Barack Obama is our new president," David Letterman quipped the day after the election. "And I think I speak for most Americans when I say, anybody mind if he starts a little early?"

Historians made a small fuss on March 4, 2001, the 200th anniversary of Thomas Jefferson Democratic-Republicans taking over from John Adams's Federalists, the first such peaceable transition in American history. Peaceable transitions are something worth celebrating, even if they are -- and always will be -- problematic. But at least now the wait is shorter than it was in 1801. Thanks to the Twentieth Amendment, ratified in 1933, the newly-elected person now is called the "president-elect" for a month and a half less than used to be the case.

But it's still a long time, from early November to January 20th, and in a period like the one we're living through -- the economy sicker every day, our foreign policy in crisis, and the outgoing president mainly interested in pushing through dubious regulations and de-regulations that the new administration will have to spend considerable time and energy overturning -- it seems to me every day that we should be able to speed up the process.

Congress will swear in its new members and start doing business as "the 111th Congress" on Monday, January 5. Why shouldn't the new president take office the day after?

A fact of which most people are surely unaware is that a quicker transition is entirely possible. By using the Twenty-fifth Amendment, the one passed in the wake of John F. Kennedy's assassination, a new president could take office at any time after his or her election.

Section 2 of the Twenty-fifth Amendment specifies that in case of "a vacancy in the office of the Vice President, the President shall nominate a Vice President who shall take office upon confirmation by a majority vote of both Houses of Congress." Six years later, these words permitted Gerald R. Ford to become vice-president (and, the following year, president) after Spiro T. Agnew (and then Nixon) had been forced to resign in disgrace.

But it's also true that Section 2 could be used, in any presidential transition in which a sense of urgency was felt, to allow a lame duck president to pass his official powers on to a president-elect a little early. Here's how it would work:
The outgoing vice-president would resign. The outgoing president would name the president-elect as his new vice-president. Congress would confirm the new vice-president. The old president would resign. Finally, the president-elect would be sworn in as president.

With cooperation all around, it could be done in a few hours.

Such a quick transition would be likeliest in a friendly environment, when the outgoing and incoming presidents were political allies. But it could conceivably take place in a more hostile changeover as well, though this would surely require some "hardball" and backroom deals.

For example, imagine an incoming administration willing to threaten investigations and prosecutions of the outgoing bunch for criminal acts they had allegedly committed -- but willing to agree to back off from the prosecutions if the transition were speeded up. Of course, such a president-elect would have to be a lot more willing to play rough than Mr. Obama seems to be.

Are these unlikely scenarios? Absolutely. But extraordinary times can evoke extraordinary responses, and it's useful to keep in mind that the transition between administrations could

I feel certain that some day we're going to want to take advantage of this possibility of speeding a transition up. Personally, I'd choose January 5 to try it out, -- but of course it's not up to me.

Lawrence Houghteling teaches at the Heritage School, a public high school in East Harlem, New York City.

Comments

[Texas4Obama]

Obama still needs more time to appoint more folks and for the congress to have confirmation hearings on the nominees. Obama taking over now and having to work with Bush's cabinet would not be a good thing.

Sometimes it is better to have a little bit of patience ;)

[chalo]

It's completely archaic and anachronistic that in this day and age we still have to wait a full two and a half months from Election Day to Inauguration Day for the P-E to take the reins of power. And totally agree with Mr. Houghteling: given the state of this country, the economy, foreign policy, the WORLD - President-Elect Obama should be officially at the wheel, dealing with these problems. Bush is totally insignificant at this point, only inasmuch as he is unable to fix anything, or do any good - even if he had the ability or inclination to do so. Quite the contrary: he's using his remaining time in power being as destructive, and doing as much damage as possible, in his characteristic greedy, depraved and vindictive way - like the spoiled, mean-spirited and evil monster that he is. Good riddance "W". You too, "DICK"!!

[305Rider]

I think that the main reason that the new Congress convenes before the President is sworn in is to work on legislation that the new President can sign on the day he's sworn in.

[Texas4Obama]

And to have the confirmation hearings of the new cabinet appointees.

[the-lexicon]

Oh, Lawrence...don't think so "small".

Here's how to really get it done:

Bring impeachment (POTUS and VP) up in the new House, on day 1. Pass it. try that impeachment on day two, in the Senate. Impeach.

lexicon

[BBackSoon]

Just a couple of quick thoughts on this one.

First; How about if we move up the transition time to say 2 weeks. This might stop some of the last minute pardons, appointments and regulation changes. If the outgoing president had to make those unpopular modifications in the full light of a Presidential Election it might sway the election. (But now that I type it I can see that being used like a Reverse Terror Threat by Rove.)

Second; We should move the election up to the week after Income Tax Day. What better time to get people involved. The elections were originally set in November because it was after the harvest and farmers would be more likely to have time to travel to town. This is at best antiquated reasoning.

[obamagirl1968]

You are right. Many of our institutions are still based on an agrarian economy. We have passed from there through the industrial economy to an information economy. Data and decisions now move at the speed of light (or at least broadband). Elections should be held in the spring (I kind of like the idea of having it around tax time) and the inauguration should be held shortly thereafter.

[SethBLiNK]

Among the many remarkable things our President Elect has proven is the fact that this would be possible. In the two months since election day, he has made great strides toward healing whatever wounds or doubts remained after the election, filled all the key positions of his administration, weighed in on the most pressing issues of the day and even found time for what I'm sure was a much needed vacation after an exhausting two year campaign and before what will be an exhausting term in office.

I wonder if given a choice if Barack Obama would like to move his date up to Jan 5 or is fine sticking with the original date.

[Sumocat]

You had me up until: "The outgoing vice-president would resign." Oh yeah, 'cause Dick Cheney's all about admitting mistakes and giving up power.

[LauraNo]

Here's how it would work:
The outgoing vice-president would resign.

NEVER gonna happen. Ha-ha-ha. That's a laugh.

[BostonPatriot]

Just amend the Constitution-clearly with modern travel arrangements and the internet, January 20th is far to long to wait. They sped up the process in 1933 because of new air travel. Lets do it again.

[mairs]

Would he have to govern from his hotel room?

[mredder4]

Using the scenerio described above, if the president-elect were brought into the presidency like that, wouldn't that still fall under the term of the first president? And wouldn't such a usage then limit the president-elect to only one full term, since he served the final 45-odd days of the former term?

Seems a stiff price to pay for a quicker transition.

[myrddin]

Presidents are restricted to two elected terms of office. Lyndon Johnson could have run for a second term if he had wanted too even though he had served part of Kennedy's term. He chose not too.

[LeftRight]

That's only the case if they serve less than half of someone else's term. Since Kennedy took office on January 20th 1961, had he been killed any time before January 20th 1963 Johnson would have been restricted to only one elected term.

[LeftRight]

Actually, the way that it's done is if you serve more than half of a prior president's term then your first term is considered your second.

In other words, when Roosevelt died he was less than a year into his fourth term. Truman (under the rules as they now apply......) would have been able to run only once. Kennedy died when he had less than a year left on his first term. Johnson would then have been allowed to run twice AFTER that.

[Beachrunner]

This is one of the greatest pieces of satire every written!!

[LeftRight]

Or, we could wait the Constitutionally mandated time from the first Tuesday following the first Monday in November until January 20th.

While I can certainly understand the desire to get Obama into office as fast as possible to begin to fix the mess left by bush, that's just not the way that we do things in America!

[obamagirl1968]

The 'way we do things in America' has changed over the years in case you didn't notice....