Who would you rather have a step away from the Presidency?
JOE BIDEN FOR THE POSITION OF SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE IN 2019
Democratic Representatives and candidates should endorse Joe Biden for the Office of Speaker of the House of Representatives today and elect him Speaker when the new Democratic House is seated on January 3, 2019. Speaker Biden would be good for the country and his election by the House would be legal and constitutional. While every previous Speaker has been a House Member, there is no constitutional requirement that a Speaker be a Representative. http://clerk.house.gov/member_info/memberfaq.aspx Assuming the Democrats have a majority of seats in the new House, they could by majority vote of all members elect former Vice President Biden, or anyone else for that matter who is otherwise eligible for that office.
<<This is a fuller examination of an earlier proposal in a Kos diary by Shrinkandhammer www.dailykos.com/… )>>
SPEAKER BIDEN WOULD BE GOOD FOR THE COUNTRY
We are living in a deeply divided country with strong opposing opinions on every issue (Quinnipeac poll; NBC/WSJ poll ; Marist poll ). These deep political divisions are exacerbated by the uncertainty surrounding the continuity in office of the current President and Vice President.
We have no idea when the Special Counsel will issue findings from his current investigation. He may wait for the conclusion of the mid-term elections because of DOJ policy. He may be forced into a 2019 calendar by the pace of the investigation or necessary judicial review, e.g., to determine the legal validity of a grand jury subpoena to interview the President or a grand jury indictment of the President. A subpoena or indictment of the President could take months to wind their way through the judicial appeal process. This might bring us to early 2019 before we receive final decisions.
The country needs to come together quickly to solve the issues facing us. It also needs some certainty in how Presidential succession might unfold, if necessary, after a report of the Special Counsel or, after unanticipated resignations from the President and/or Vice President.
Joe Biden is the Democratic politician who has the greatest likelihood of bringing the country together. His polling favorables document a wildly popular public figure with more than two to one favorability ratio. (CNN Poll 12/2017) The country’s positive view of Biden would help establish the trust necessary to follow his decisions as Speaker.
The new Speaker will need to make decisions on impeachment, Presidential succession and VP appointment via 25th Amendment vacancies, and the massive legislative agenda which awaits the new Congress. This legislative agenda includes the Federal budget, a roll-back of the Trump tax heist, renewed oversight of Federal agencies and the Office of the President, protection and expansion of health rights which are currently under attack, infrastructure rebuilding, job security, codifying our trampled governing norms, protecting our air and water and respect for human rights. Mr. Biden has thirty-six years of legislative experience as Senator and eight years’ experience as Vice President where he negotiated major pieces of legislation from the perspective of the Executive Office. He ran the Obama Administration Infrastructure initiatives. It would be hard to find any American better respected or better qualified to occupy the office of the Speaker at this crucial point in American history.
ELECTING BIDEN HOUSE SPEAKER IS CONSTITUTIONAL, LEGAL AND FEASIBLE
“The Speaker of the House is the presiding officer of the United States House of Representatives. The office was established in 1789 by Article I, Section 2 of the United States Constitution. The Speaker is the political and parliamentary leader of the House of Representatives, and is simultaneously the House's presiding officer, de facto leader of the body's majority party, and the institution's administrative head. Speakers also perform various other administrative and procedural functions. Given these several roles and responsibilities, the Speaker usually does not personally preside over debates. That duty is instead delegated to members of the House from the majority party. Neither does the Speaker regularly participate in floor debates nor vote.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speaker_of_the_United_States_House_of_Representatives
Clearly, Joe Biden is eminently qualified for these roles. His substantial legislative experience including his dual Senate Chairmanships, Judiciary and Foreign Relations ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Biden ) qualify him as a parliamentary leader. His four decades of elected office as a Democrat qualify him for the role of majority party leader. His eight years as Vice President qualify him for the role as administrative head of the House.
Joe Biden’s election as Speaker of the House by his Democratic peers is legal and politically feasible. As noted above, there is no constitutional requirement that the Speaker be an elected Representative in the House
“Article I, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution states, "The House of Representatives shall chuse their Speaker and other Officers." Although the Constitution does not require the Speaker to be a Member of the House, all Speakers have been Members.” http://clerk.house.gov/member_info/memberfaq.aspx
While Biden’s election to the office of Speaker would be unprecedented, it is both constitutional and legal.
Obviously, his election is politically feasible. Who doubts that former Vice President Biden could be elected Speaker by the new Democratic majority if he were to run? Who is uncertain that former Vice President Biden would decline to serve his country is this period of national crisis? Who thinks that Nancy Pelosi would have misgivings about remaining in the House as Majority Leader, the Speaker’s right-hand person?
SUCCESSION. SUCCESSION. SUCCESSION.
In the next year, the issue of succession for the Office of the President and Vice President may become white hot. Special Counsel indictments, resignation for health or other reasons, and elevation to higher office could force the country into a succession protocol. The Speaker of the House will play an important role in any President/VP succession scenario. This role will become very controversial since the Presidency and House ( and perhaps the Senate ) would be controlled by different parties in a partisan charged political environment. Unquestionably, the Speaker’s actions in the succession protocol will need broad public support to be viewed as legitimate.
The Speaker of the House plays two separate but equally important roles in American Presidential succession scenarios. One, The Speaker is second in line of succession for President, behind the Vice President and ahead of the President pro tempore of the Senate ( https://definitions.uslegal.com/p/presidential-succession-act/ as amended on several occasions ). Under several scenarios both the President and Vice President could leave office simultaneously (e.g., simultaneous impeachment, or an indictment of the VP while the President resigns rather than facing impeachment) or in close proximity (e.g., the VP is indicted and resigns and the President is impeached shortly thereafter ). After simultaneous vacancies in the Presidency and Vice Presidency, the Speaker of the House would become acting President with all the duties and powers of that office for the remainder of the term. Under any dual vacancy in the office of President or Vice President (including temporary vacancies in the Presidency under the 25th Amendment), a Speaker Biden would assume the duties and powers of the Presidency. In our politically polarized times, any cross party Presidential succession would be controversial. Nevertheless, I can’t think of another eligible person in the US who would have such a large chance of gaining acceptance and legitimacy as acting President in such a scenario.
Two, The Speaker of the House also plays a large role in both temporary and permanent succession for the President and Vice President under the 25th Amendment. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twenty-fifth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution ) Temporary evacuation of the Office of the President, either voluntary or involuntary, must be communicated to the president pro tempore of the Senate and Speaker of the House. More importantly, if there is a dispute between the President and the Vice President/majority of the officers of executive agencies ( the group specified in the 25th Amendment ) about a President’s capacity for office, the Speaker of the House assumes a central role in assembling a 2/3rds vote to prevent the President from reassuming the office. One could foresee such a dispute arising from a mental disability afflicting the President. The country would need a wise arbitrator in such a situation. Joe Biden would certainly be the correct person to help resolve the dispute.
The 25th Amendment, Section 2 also specifies the procedure for refilling the position of Vice President when the Vice President leaves the office. Section 2 states:
“Whenever 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.” ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twenty-fifth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution )
In other words, the Speaker of the House and the Democratic majority would have a veto over the President’s nominee. ( The Senate also has a veto.) It is easy to anticipate such a vacancy in our current circumstances. If the Special Counsel were to indict the Vice President, Pence would likely have to resign in short order. If the Special Counsel were to conclude simultaneously that the President could not be indicted but that the DOJ should make an impeachment referral to Congress, the country could be faced with a President under House impeachment and Senate trial for months. Further, it would be absurd to allow a President whose legitimacy is under question to name his successor. It would take an experienced person to weigh the legitimacy issues, the continuity of government issues, and interests of the country in any decision of whether the House would approve a VP nomination by the President. Joe Biden would perhaps be the only current American politician with the capability to make such a decision based on his Executive, Legislative, and Judicial (Chair of Senate Judiciary Committee) experience.
THE COUNTRY NEEDS JOE BIDEN AS SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE IN 2019 AND DEMOCRATS SHOULD ENDORSE THIS IDEA RIGHT NOW
Our country is facing social, economic, political and foreign policy problems going into a year of electoral uncertainty and, perhaps, unprecedented questions about the legitimacy of Presidential and Vice-Presidential office holders. For now, the position of Speaker of the House will be the key to beginning to deal with these issues. In fact, if the Democrats win the House in November, it will be largely because the public wants a check on Trump and some stability in a cray cray period in our history. In order for the Democrats to meet the public’s expectations about helping solve long building socioeconomic and foreign challenges along with unprecedented Presidential succession issues, unparalleled leadership will be required.
Lucky for the country, the Democrats have the perfect leader to achieve the public’s objectives, Joe Biden. Former Vice President Biden is the person with the unique combination of popular support, job experience and political wisdom that the country needs today. The Democratic Representatives running for re-election and Democratic House candidates should immediately endorse Joe Biden for Speaker in 2019 and elect him on January 3, 2019. This likely means he must relinquish his early frontrunner status for the 2020 Presidential campaign and become a politician who gave up his dream of the Presidency twice. Would he do this for the country? Hey. He’s Joe Biden. Of course, he’d do this for us.
