Who Would Suceed?

Mrs. X and I came up with an odd little conundrum last night while talking. Mr. Obama and Mr. Biden will be sworn in as the new President and Vice-President at noon on January 20. This will obviously be a huge event and all the Washington notables will be there. However, what would happen if there was a terrorist attack that resulted in large casualties at the inaguration, including the new President and Vice-President?

The standard order of succession would go first to Speaker of the House (Nancy Pelosi, D-CA) and then to the President pro-tempore of the Senate (Robert Byrd, D-WV). However, I'm sure they would be invited to the capital building and would probably be killed in whatever attack that killed President Obama and Vice-President Biden. Normally, it would then pass to the various cabinet officers. However, the Presidential Succession Act of 1947 specifically states that to be eligible to be in the line of succession, officers must have been appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate. So any cabinet officers that Mr. Obama would appoint would be ineligable.

Our best guess is that one or two members of the Bush cabinet would not be allowed to resign from their posts until at least one of Mr. Obama's cabinet appointees had been confirmed, setting up his own line of succession. Much like the State of the Union address, the big cabinet officers would probably be attending the inaguration as guests of the outgoing President (Mr. Bush), so it would fall to some lowly secretary who would not be allowed to resign and then not attend the inaguration. After the big four of State, Treasury, Defence and AG, succession would pass to Interior and then Agriculture. So if there was a huge terrorist attack on Inaguration Day, one could look forward to the prospect of President Dirk Kempthorne or President Ed Schafer.