According to CNN, Dick Cheney tendered his resignation on Day One:
For the entire time Cheney was vice president, he had a secret letter of resignation pending. He wrote this letter because he saw a gap in the U.S. Constitution. If a vice president is alive but incapacitated, there’s nothing in the Constitution that allows for that person’s removal. Worried that he might find himself in that position, he created the unprecedented letter.
Cheney said he gave the letter to his counsel, David Addington, with instruction that it was to be delivered to President George W. Bush if Cheney were to become incapacitated.
Come to think of it, it is a bit surprising that wasn’t included with the 25th Amendment. Doug Mataconis says this was probably because it was seen as unnecessary, but I’m not so sure. While the Vice Presidency isn’t what it is now, when the Amendment was passed in 1967 the sitting president was one who ascended from the vice presidency. One who was, for that matter, not exactly a pillar of good health himself. It would have been relatively easy to include the VP.
The 25th Amendment states, among other things, that a president can be declared incapacitated with a majority of his cabinet. That makes things with the Vice President a little bit different because unlike the President, it’s not his cabinet and therefore has no specific loyalty to him. But there are safeguards in place to prevent a cabinet from hijacking the presidency (second season of 24 notwithstanding) and they would work just as well with the vice president.
It could make for an interesting TV show episode, anyway.
The vice presidency is a funny job. It is second to the president, but does not report to him in an official capacity. He cannot be fired for insubordination. He can be dumped when it comes to re-election time, though that assumes that the president is eligible to run for re-election (and the non-existence of a few very, very implausible scenarios). Beyond that, he can basically send the vice president home. Which may leave the vice president cooling his heels in Wyoming, Delaware, or an apartment in DC, but doing so as The Vice President of the United States.
I bring this up because I wonder if Cheney’s letter actually could become something that presidents demand of their vice presidential picks. I don’t know the legalities involved, but would if Barack Obama had said “Senator Biden, if you want to be my vice president, I want to have a letter in my hand with your resignation if everything goes sideways.”
It’s a tradition with cabinets that they submit their resignation at the end of the first term even if they know their resignation will not be accepted. It would be easy to imagine that with the vice president, where the resignation actually matters.
On the other hand, that would probably be a solution in search of a problem. The only time in recent memory a president wanted a vice president gone before the term was up, the vice president dutifully resigned. On the other hand, can you imagine a spat like Pataki-McCaughey on the national level?
Now that would make for an interesting TV show episode.
Kinda assumed most cabinet members and other appointed staff had resignations filed as a matter of course.
Not so?Report
My understanding is that the resignation is tendered on re-election, but not throughout. Unlike the VP, they serve at the pleasure of the president, and since they can be fired at any point, they can turn in their resignation at any point. So, unlike with the VP, there’s really no reason for them to have a resignation on file.Report
The Vice President is a guest at the white house.
He has less security clearance than the white house chef.Report
I doubt that.Report
Well, I should say, he has less security clearance /at the White House/.
The chef’s allowed to be onsite whenever he wants, in pursuit of his job.
The vice president isn’t considered likely to need to be at the White House offhours
(unlike, say the chief of staff)Report
This is the most ridiculous thing you have posted yet!
(Perhaps not, your writing engenders a parent speaking in the Peanuts response – there could be something I missed).Report
Just because they told Biden that in an effort to keep him from showing up at meetings doesn’t make that true for previous VPs.Report
It’s called the “No Joes Club”… we’re allowed to have one.Report
Joe Biden: Last Seen at the EPA bribing people with muffins, in order to get a tour of the place.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/photo-biden-brings-muffins-for-returning-epa-workersReport
So what if the VP needs removal and doesn’t want to go? Can he be impeached? The Constitution is silent on the matter.
If a President or a Judge can be impeached, and a member of Congress can be expelled, it takes a vote of at least one house Congress. So it seems to be not a very big stretch to say that some kind of Congressional action is capable of removing the VP from office as well.
If you care about original intent, then it seems clear that the Framers intended that the holder of any Federal office be subject to some kind of removal for very bad acts.
If you care about the structure and concepts set forth in the text, it seems clear that every office named in the Constitution is within the ability of Congress to remove. Specifically, at least one house of Congress.
It’s only if you’re going to be rigidly formal about the text that the VP is unremovable other than by his or her own resignation or death.
And given the rising importance of the Vice Presidency since the Clinton Administration, it seems we ought to formalize the issue. Removal through impeachment and trial with the same mechanism as is used for the President seems like the right way to go for me.Report
Article II, section 4:
The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other High crimes and Misdemeanors.Report
Wasn’t the VP originally the loser (or second place finisher) in the Presidential election? If so, it would make sense to limit the President’s ability to fire this person.Report
You are correct, but even aside from that the VP shouldn’t be fireable by the president in any circumstances. A president about to be impeached and indicted could threaten to fire the VP if the VP does not promise to issue a pardon.Report
Great point. I would think that the President ought to have some role in the process, but he/she shouldn’t have unilateral authority, for the reason cited (among others, I’m sure).
Perhaps he can propose to Congress that they consider removal from office and/or testify to that case.Report
“…it would make sense to limit the President’s ability to fire this person.”
This would seem the likely intent, given that the original authors of the Constitution really, really, really didn’t trust the executive.Report
Since the VP was originally the loser of the Presidential election, they certainly wouldn’t have given the President the ability to fire him.Report
The problem, though, is that becoming incapacitated is not really a high crime or misdemeanor. I think Congress could impeach a person nevertheless, but they’d be reluctant to because it’s a black mark that is undeserved. Wilson wasn’t impeached, nor was Justice Douglas, and both cases caused problems (although fortunately, only minor ones). So the same reluctance, I think, would extend to the potential impeachment of an incapacitated VP.Report
My takeaway from last night’s 60 Minutes piece on Cheney is that even though he got a transplant, he still doesn’t have a heart!Report
“It could make for an interesting TV show episode, anyway.”
It was, sort of. On the West Wing, the VP resigned (though the administration was pushing for him to stay), then there was a 25th amendment crisis when Bartlett’s youngest daughter was kidnapped.
(Then John Goodman became President, and was like “Dude, the girl kidnapped herself”)
But really, I don’t think it matters. A VP who is either incapacitated or otherwise indisposed just doesn’t show up to break any ties in the Senate. If the sitting President then does indeed go out of commission, the VP becomes President, and if he or she can’t or won’t, the authority passes seamlessly to the Speaker of the House, and so on and so forth.
(the one thing I would do is take Senate President Pro Tempore out of the line of succession, or give the job to someone who isn’t necessarily just the oldest guy in that room)Report
Getting drunk and shooting his friend in the face didn’t count?Report