If Instant Karma Strikes (#1) Bush and (#2) Cheney TOMORROW...

...who'd be in charge?

OK, even I knew that the Presidency would pass to #3. The Speaker of the House (currently Nancy Pelosi).

But if the Speaker is also unable to serve, what's the succession to the throne after that? While it may never be relevant beyond the VP spot, in these uncertain times maybe we should dust off the list, if only for perspective...

...so after the VP & the Speaker of the House comes:

4. President Pro Tempore of the Senate (Senator Robert Byrd)
5. Secretary of State (Condie Rice strikes a blow for gap-toothed women)
6. Secretary of the Treasury (Henry Paulson)
7. Secretary of Defense (Robert Gates, like his hands aren't full already)
8. Attorney General (since Gonzo split, & until Michael Mukasey is confirmed, we have an Acting AG, Peter Keisler)
9. Secretary of Interior (Dirk Kempthorne)
10. Secretary of Agriculture (Mike Johanns)
- Secretary of Commerce (Carlos Gutierrez, excluded because he is a naturalized citizen, born in Havana, the son of a pineapple plantation owner)
- Secretary of Labor (Elaine Cho, the first Asian American woman appointed to a President's cabinet, but also excluded as a naturalized citizen)
11. Secretary of Health and Human Services (Mike Leavitt)
12. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (Aphonso Jackson)
13. Secretary of Transportation (Mary Peters)
14. Secretary of Energy (Samuel Bodman)
15. Secretary of Education (Margaret Spellings)
16. Secretary of Veterans Affairs (Jim Nicholson)
17. Secretary of Homeland Security (Michael Chertoff)

(Note that the Postmaster General is no longer on the list; that position used to be in the President's Cabinet, but isn't anymore therefore the P.G. is off the list. Can't imagine why he was ever on it, but whatever...)

All this could be important to know if you believe that you are about to move up a step, as the excited, breathless Secretary of State Alexander Haig insisted publicly after the assassination attempt on President Reagan.
( Al Haig, not in charge!)
Remember when he "reassured" a nervous nation (while Reagan was in surgery and VP Bush was in an airplane and weirdly unreachable) that "as of now, I am in control here, in the White House, pending return of the Vice President" ? Only he wasn't, really, so his reassurances didn't help much, did they? (Didn't help his street cred either...)