In the wake of Presidents’ Day, how about “a few words on the vice presidency”?
Sometimes downplayed – or discredited because its prescribed high level duties seem few – the vice presidency has its dignifying features nevertheless.
As Senate Majority Leader Howard Baker noted in introducing new Vice President George ‘Bush to an August body of U.S. senators;
“The vice presidency of the United States is the only office in government which has a foot in both the executive and legislative legislative branches.”
The candidate elected to that post not only is vice president – but he’s also the president of the Senate and casts the deciding vote in case of a tie.
The crowning feature of the vice presidency, of course, is that under the Constitution the Vice President becomes the President when the chief executive is removed from office by death, resignation. impeachment or inability to discharge the “powers and duties of the office.”
And that possibility isn’t as remote as you might think, Nine vice presidents have succeeded to the presidency – eight through death of the White House occupant and the ninth through resignation.
Based on the history of the presidency thus far. a vice president has a 23-plus percent chance of succeeding to the oval office.
The nine vice presidents who inherited the presidency were led by John Tyler, who became the 10th President when William Henry Harrison died of pneumonia in 1941 within one month of his inauguration.
Others were Millard Fillmore, Andrew Johnson. Chester Arthur. Theodore Roosevelt, Calvin Coolidge. Harry Truman. Lyndon B. Johnson and Gerald R. Ford. Lyndon Johnson, Truman, Coolidge and Roosevelt earned added tenure in the White House with elected terms of their own.
Andrew Johnson. who succeeded to the presidency when Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, had the unique experience of being a Democrat elected on the Republican ticket.
Three Johnsons, incidentally, have served as vice presidents – Richard under President Martin Van Buren. Andrew with Lincoln, and Lyndon B. with John F. Kennedy.
In 1800. Thomas Jefferson, vice president to John Adams. the second President. had the distinction of running against the incumbent and winning… the first of Jeffersons two terms as chief executive.
Some authorities on government hold that the office of vice president is too weak. Yet many vice presidents have wielded strong political and governmental influence. And the flexibility of the post has enabled Vice Presidents to accept trouble-shooting assignments across the globe.
A trend to augment the official duties was indicated in 1949 when the vice president was named a member of the National Security Council.
Last week President Reagan assigned Bush to be chairman of a commission for relief from government over-regulation. That in itself is a good-sized job.