The latest West Wing

Last night's season finale to West Wing was as usual a cliff hanger with the President leaving the Oval Office having handed over the Office to the Speaker of the House under the 25th Amendment.

Have to wait to whole summer to find out how they are getting this situation resolved. In the past "cliffhangers" you kind of knew where they would go next. With the track record of the West Wing writers killing off characters (Mark Harmon's secret service agent or the tough love secretary Mrs. Landingham) it isn't assured that Zoey will be rescued.

I wondered why they had the Veep bumped off for a scandal a couple of episodes ago. It would have been dramatic enough for Bartlett to invoke the 25th and turn over the reins to Hoynes. However, with Hoynes out, they turn things over to the opposing party Speaker of the House played by John Goodman. So yeah, more drama I suppose.

Anyway, back to the real world. To see Grolier's summary of the 25th see here and for a list of the order of succession I found one in Infoplease.com.

The 25th amendment was really a bow to the reality that poor health and assasination plots could disrupt the US government. Wilson was very ill late in his second term. FDR could only work for a few hours a day late in WW2. Eisenhower suffered health set-backs while in office. JFK who at the time portrayed a picture of youth and vigor, we are now discovering was on many medications. Of course, the tragic events of Dallas resulted in LBJ becoming president and leaving the VP spot vacant until 1965 when Hubert Humphrey was sworn in.

It was in this backdrop that the 25th Amendment came to be. The issue of "continuity of government" was a major concern for the above reasons. More drastically was the Cold War where scenarios of the President being killed by the Soviets in prelude to a nuclear surprise attack. 9/11 raised once again question of succession and continuity of government.

Shortly after the 25th Amendment was ratified, it was put to use in the case of Gerald Ford who was elevated from congressman to vice-president to president. Probably only a handful of countries in the world could have that kind of transition of power with minimal questions of legitamacy. As much as we harp on the USA at times, it is rather remarkable that the rule of law actually applies and works out most of the time. And probably the biggest time the rule of law provides stability is when there are transitions of power.