"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.