Jim Stillman
NevarPart I: “What is it exactly that the Vice President does every day?”
October 4th 2008 15:18
Sarah Palin asked this question and the answer is complex.
The U.S. Vice President’s duties come from the Constitution, statutes and custom. Part I explores these duties and Part II deals with Sarah Palin’s lack of any qualifications for the job.
Before the Vice-Presidential debate, it might be helpful to focus on Sarah Palin’s most candid, memorable and intelligent quote so far may be when she is said to have asked, before being offered a place on the Republican ticket: "What is it exactly that the Vice-President does every day?"
Actually, before Mr. Chaney arrived and spent his days authorizing invasions, torture, the wholesale destruction of Americans’ previously held-to-be –sacred rights of privacy and to be left alone (sorry for the digression), many of the previous incumbents of the office did not speak highly or graciously of the job. Some of the quotations have become part of the folklore of the country.
Perhaps the most quoted comment was made by John Nance Garner, Vice President for Franklin Roosevelt’s first two terms starting in 1932. Mr. Garner said that the Vice Presidency was totally insignificant and that the job is "not worth a bucket of warm piss."
Others in the past have been just as harsh if not quite so colorful. For example,
“Being vice president is comparable to "a man in a cataleptic fit; he cannot speak; he cannot move; he suffers no pain; he is perfectly conscious of all that goes on, but has no part in it." — Thomas R. Marshall, vice president under Woodrow Wilson.
"The chief embarrassment in discussing the office is that in explaining how little there is to say about it one has evidently said all there is to say." — Woodrow Wilson, before he became President.
“I go to funerals. I go to earthquakes." — Nelson Rockefeller, appointed after Richard Nixon resigned in 1974 and Vice President Gerald Ford became president.
"The vice president has two duties. One is to inquire daily as to the health of the president, and the other is to attend the funerals of Third World dictators. And neither of those do I find an enjoyable exercise." - Presidential candidate John McCain, in 2000.
The Constitution and the Vice Presidency.
The Constitution, Article II, Section 1, established a peculiar American institution the Electoral College, which consisted of Electors from each state who meet and vote for President. The plan was that the person having the most votes would be President; the Vice Presidency was a consolation prize, awarded to the candidate who came in second in the Electoral College. The system worked for the first two Presidential elections, which George Washington won easily. John Adams was the second choice and he happily served as Vice President under Washington, knowing that his turn would come. But the authors of the Constitution didn’t anticipate the rise of political parties and, by 1796, John Adams was the head of the Federalist Party, opposed by Thomas Jefferson's Democratic-Republican Party. Adams won, with Jefferson coming in second, and as a result, the Vice President did not support the President's policies. While these two men worked things out fairly well, it became apparent that a change was necessary.
Enter the 12th Amendment. This Amendment requires Electors to vote separately for president and vice president. It was the Twelfth Amendment (adopted in 1804), along with the growth of political parties, that encouraged the pairing of candidates in the presidential election. Since then, the vice presidential selection process has evolved from party leaders' making the selection to the current system, under which the party's presidential nominee is given the power to select a vice presidential running mate.
The Vice President's only constitutionally-assigned duty is to preside over, and break ties in, the Senate but he (or she) does not sit in committees in the Senate, and the full Senate does not meet for anything resembling a 40-hour work week. Even when the full Senate is in session, the President pro tempore (by custom, the most senior member of the Senate) can preside in the Vice President's absence. So, as far as the Constitution is concerned, the only duty of the Vice President is to show up on those rare occasions when the full Senate is tied on an important vote. Even then, if the Bill will not pass the House of Representatives or the President would veto the Bill, the Vice President's vote is not relevant at all.
In recent years, Presidents have given their Vice Presidents additional duties and responsibilities, beyond attending funerals of heads of state. Beginning with Walter Mondale's substantial role in the Carter Administration, and progressing in giant leaps with Vice Presidents Gore and Cheney under Presidents Clinton and Bush, respectively, the Vice President has taken on much more substantive responsibilities.
These come in two forms.
First, specific policy tasks have been placed under the supervision of the Vice President. Dan Quayle was the Chairman of the National Space Council under the first President Bush; Al Gore was tasked with the Reinventing Government initiative of the Clinton Administration; and Dick Cheney directed the Energy Task Force under the current President Bush. Each was charged with making policy.
Second, the Vice President must be ready to assume the duties of President at any moment. Under the Constitution and the 12th and 25th Amendments, he or she will become President upon the death, incapacity or resignation of the President. Nine times in our history, Vice Presidents have succeeded to the Presidency: John Tyler , Millard Fillmore, Andrew Johnson, Chester A. Arthur, Theodore Roosevelt, Calvin Coolidge, Harry Truman, Lyndon Johnson, and Gerald Ford. The Vice President also has a significant secondary role: It is he or she, acting with a majority of the Cabinet, who can declare the President incapable of carrying out the duties of the office, and then take charge - until the action is either ratified or rejected by a majority of the Congress. This last power or responsibility is authorized by the 1967 Amendment but has never been used.
The 25th Amendment to the Constitution, adopted in 1967, indirectly codifies the criteria for the choice of Vice President. The Amendment states that when there is 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." A Vice President, like a President, must be a natural born citizen, at least thirty-five years of age, and a resident of the United States for fourteen years.
Of course, Sarah Palin meets the minimum constitutional requirements; but there also exists a clear subtext within the Constitution, and related statutes, that suggests that there are other, implicit qualifications for the Vice President with respect to which Governor Palin falls short. While this subtext is plainly not formally binding on either a presidential candidate or president, candidates and presidents have traditionally followed the implicit qualifications suggested by the Constitution.
Twice, the Twenty-fifty Amendment has been employed to fill a vacancy in the vice presidency. Richard Nixon appointed Gerald Ford to fill the office when Vice President Spiro Agnew resigned (under threat of indictment). Then, after Nixon resigned, and Ford succeeded to the presidency, Ford used it to appoint Nelson Rockefeller his Vice President.
Both Presidents Nixon and Ford explained their decisions, and the criteria at the top of their lists. Nixon wrote that from
Gerald Ford said he had given considerable thought to filling the vice presidency when he became president, and his staff developed a ranking system.
Congress Has Also Suggested Vice Presidential Qualifications Indirectly In the Succession Statutes It Has passed
The 25th Amendment only covers succession to the presidency or vice presidency when one of these offices is vacant - not both. It is silent if there are vacancies in both of the offices of the President and Vice President. Dual and concurrent vacancies have, however, been addressed by Congress, most recently in a 1947 law.
The line of succession to the presidency begins with the Speaker of the House of Representatives and then the President pro tempore of the Senate. Finally, if neither of these officers is willing or able to take the post, the succession law turns to the President's Cabinet members.
Although this 1947 succession statute has been appropriately criticized, Congress has been reluctant to change it. The Congressional consensus has been that if there is a dual vacancy in the Executive branch's elected officials; it should be temporarily filled by a seasoned elected official from the Legislative Branch. In practice, while the full line of succession has been stipulated, it is unlikely that we will ever need to go beyond the Speaker of the House to fill the vacancy temporarily.
If neither the Speaker nor the President pro tempore is up to the task of serving, Congress has been comfortable with the caliber of appointees serving as Secretaries of State, Treasury, or Defense to serve as temporary president - for no one believes (absent a dramatic situation such as a massive attack on the seat of government that would call into force continuity-of-government plans) that the succession process would ever proceed beyond the "big three" Cabinet posts.
In the next artcle, the question of whether Sarah Palin measures up/
(A version of these articles has appeared in Examiner.com)
The U.S. Vice President’s duties come from the Constitution, statutes and custom. Part I explores these duties and Part II deals with Sarah Palin’s lack of any qualifications for the job.
Before the Vice-Presidential debate, it might be helpful to focus on Sarah Palin’s most candid, memorable and intelligent quote so far may be when she is said to have asked, before being offered a place on the Republican ticket: "What is it exactly that the Vice-President does every day?"
Actually, before Mr. Chaney arrived and spent his days authorizing invasions, torture, the wholesale destruction of Americans’ previously held-to-be –sacred rights of privacy and to be left alone (sorry for the digression), many of the previous incumbents of the office did not speak highly or graciously of the job. Some of the quotations have become part of the folklore of the country.
Perhaps the most quoted comment was made by John Nance Garner, Vice President for Franklin Roosevelt’s first two terms starting in 1932. Mr. Garner said that the Vice Presidency was totally insignificant and that the job is "not worth a bucket of warm piss."
Others in the past have been just as harsh if not quite so colorful. For example,
“Being vice president is comparable to "a man in a cataleptic fit; he cannot speak; he cannot move; he suffers no pain; he is perfectly conscious of all that goes on, but has no part in it." — Thomas R. Marshall, vice president under Woodrow Wilson.
"The chief embarrassment in discussing the office is that in explaining how little there is to say about it one has evidently said all there is to say." — Woodrow Wilson, before he became President.
“I go to funerals. I go to earthquakes." — Nelson Rockefeller, appointed after Richard Nixon resigned in 1974 and Vice President Gerald Ford became president.
"The vice president has two duties. One is to inquire daily as to the health of the president, and the other is to attend the funerals of Third World dictators. And neither of those do I find an enjoyable exercise." - Presidential candidate John McCain, in 2000.
The Constitution and the Vice Presidency.
The Constitution, Article II, Section 1, established a peculiar American institution the Electoral College, which consisted of Electors from each state who meet and vote for President. The plan was that the person having the most votes would be President; the Vice Presidency was a consolation prize, awarded to the candidate who came in second in the Electoral College. The system worked for the first two Presidential elections, which George Washington won easily. John Adams was the second choice and he happily served as Vice President under Washington, knowing that his turn would come. But the authors of the Constitution didn’t anticipate the rise of political parties and, by 1796, John Adams was the head of the Federalist Party, opposed by Thomas Jefferson's Democratic-Republican Party. Adams won, with Jefferson coming in second, and as a result, the Vice President did not support the President's policies. While these two men worked things out fairly well, it became apparent that a change was necessary.
Enter the 12th Amendment. This Amendment requires Electors to vote separately for president and vice president. It was the Twelfth Amendment (adopted in 1804), along with the growth of political parties, that encouraged the pairing of candidates in the presidential election. Since then, the vice presidential selection process has evolved from party leaders' making the selection to the current system, under which the party's presidential nominee is given the power to select a vice presidential running mate.
The Vice President's only constitutionally-assigned duty is to preside over, and break ties in, the Senate but he (or she) does not sit in committees in the Senate, and the full Senate does not meet for anything resembling a 40-hour work week. Even when the full Senate is in session, the President pro tempore (by custom, the most senior member of the Senate) can preside in the Vice President's absence. So, as far as the Constitution is concerned, the only duty of the Vice President is to show up on those rare occasions when the full Senate is tied on an important vote. Even then, if the Bill will not pass the House of Representatives or the President would veto the Bill, the Vice President's vote is not relevant at all.
In recent years, Presidents have given their Vice Presidents additional duties and responsibilities, beyond attending funerals of heads of state. Beginning with Walter Mondale's substantial role in the Carter Administration, and progressing in giant leaps with Vice Presidents Gore and Cheney under Presidents Clinton and Bush, respectively, the Vice President has taken on much more substantive responsibilities.
These come in two forms.
First, specific policy tasks have been placed under the supervision of the Vice President. Dan Quayle was the Chairman of the National Space Council under the first President Bush; Al Gore was tasked with the Reinventing Government initiative of the Clinton Administration; and Dick Cheney directed the Energy Task Force under the current President Bush. Each was charged with making policy.
Second, the Vice President must be ready to assume the duties of President at any moment. Under the Constitution and the 12th and 25th Amendments, he or she will become President upon the death, incapacity or resignation of the President. Nine times in our history, Vice Presidents have succeeded to the Presidency: John Tyler , Millard Fillmore, Andrew Johnson, Chester A. Arthur, Theodore Roosevelt, Calvin Coolidge, Harry Truman, Lyndon Johnson, and Gerald Ford. The Vice President also has a significant secondary role: It is he or she, acting with a majority of the Cabinet, who can declare the President incapable of carrying out the duties of the office, and then take charge - until the action is either ratified or rejected by a majority of the Congress. This last power or responsibility is authorized by the 1967 Amendment but has never been used.
The 25th Amendment to the Constitution, adopted in 1967, indirectly codifies the criteria for the choice of Vice President. The Amendment states that when there is 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." A Vice President, like a President, must be a natural born citizen, at least thirty-five years of age, and a resident of the United States for fourteen years.
Of course, Sarah Palin meets the minimum constitutional requirements; but there also exists a clear subtext within the Constitution, and related statutes, that suggests that there are other, implicit qualifications for the Vice President with respect to which Governor Palin falls short. While this subtext is plainly not formally binding on either a presidential candidate or president, candidates and presidents have traditionally followed the implicit qualifications suggested by the Constitution.
Twice, the Twenty-fifty Amendment has been employed to fill a vacancy in the vice presidency. Richard Nixon appointed Gerald Ford to fill the office when Vice President Spiro Agnew resigned (under threat of indictment). Then, after Nixon resigned, and Ford succeeded to the presidency, Ford used it to appoint Nelson Rockefeller his Vice President.
Both Presidents Nixon and Ford explained their decisions, and the criteria at the top of their lists. Nixon wrote that from
"The outset of the search for a new Vice President I had established four criteria for the man I would select: qualification to be President; ideological affinity; loyalty and confirmability."
Gerald Ford said he had given considerable thought to filling the vice presidency when he became president, and his staff developed a ranking system.
"There was one overriding criterion,. . .[H]e had to be a man fully qualified to step into my shoes should something happen to me."
Congress Has Also Suggested Vice Presidential Qualifications Indirectly In the Succession Statutes It Has passed
The 25th Amendment only covers succession to the presidency or vice presidency when one of these offices is vacant - not both. It is silent if there are vacancies in both of the offices of the President and Vice President. Dual and concurrent vacancies have, however, been addressed by Congress, most recently in a 1947 law.
The line of succession to the presidency begins with the Speaker of the House of Representatives and then the President pro tempore of the Senate. Finally, if neither of these officers is willing or able to take the post, the succession law turns to the President's Cabinet members.
Although this 1947 succession statute has been appropriately criticized, Congress has been reluctant to change it. The Congressional consensus has been that if there is a dual vacancy in the Executive branch's elected officials; it should be temporarily filled by a seasoned elected official from the Legislative Branch. In practice, while the full line of succession has been stipulated, it is unlikely that we will ever need to go beyond the Speaker of the House to fill the vacancy temporarily.
If neither the Speaker nor the President pro tempore is up to the task of serving, Congress has been comfortable with the caliber of appointees serving as Secretaries of State, Treasury, or Defense to serve as temporary president - for no one believes (absent a dramatic situation such as a massive attack on the seat of government that would call into force continuity-of-government plans) that the succession process would ever proceed beyond the "big three" Cabinet posts.
In the next artcle, the question of whether Sarah Palin measures up/
(A version of these articles has appeared in Examiner.com)
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Comment by Lester Caudill
Round Politics
As far as Sarah being not being qualified to be Vice President, Jim you know she meets the qualifications, and there is no minimum, or maximum standards to meet, either your meet them or not. Any thing else is just purely personal opinions.
In my opinion if Sarah is not qualified, then Barack is much less qualified to be president. He doesn't even know how many States there are. Didn't he say there was 57? I want a president that actually knows how many states he will be representing.
Jim didn't you just love that debate Sarah was kicking butt, and taking names. I love it when she used Barack's attacks on the troops, and Biden couldn't defend that. I would love for Barack to have to answer for his stupid remarks that the liberal media have tried to ignore, and bury.