HEARTBEAT AWAY FROM THE PRESIDENCY PUT IN PERSPECTIVE

This is a list of the current presidential line of succession
as specified by the Presidential Succession Act of 1947 (3 U.S.C. § 19).


1 Vice President and President of the Senate - Currently Dick Cheney

2 Speaker of the House of Representatives - Nancy Pelosi

3 President pro tempore of the Senate - Robert Byrd

4 Secretary of State - Condoleezza Rice


Sarah Palin would be - Vice President and President of the Senate

HOWEVER..... Next would be...

Nancy Pelosi - Democrat








Wealthy San Francisco Liberal that was handed her political career on a silver platter.

Financial status
The Pelosi family has a net worth of over US$25 million, primarily from investments. In addition to their large portfolio of jointly owned San Francisco Bay Area real estate, she also has millions of dollars in stock from publicly traded companies such as Microsoft, Amazon.com and AT&T. In 2003, the Pelosi family sold their eight-acre (three hectare) Rutherford vineyard. Pelosi continues to be among the richest members of Congress.


Congressional career
Phillip Burton died in 1983 and was succeeded by his wife, Sala. In late 1986, Sala became ill with cancer and decided not to run for reelection in 1988. She picked Pelosi as her designated successor, guaranteeing her the support of the Burtons' contacts. Sala died on February 1, 1987, just a month after being sworn in for a second full term. Pelosi won the special election to succeed her, narrowly defeating San Francisco Supervisor Harry Britt, and took office on June 2, 1987.

Pelosi represents one of the safest Democratic districts in the country. Democrats have held the seat since 1949, and Republicans, who currently make up only 13 percent of registered voters in the district, have not made a serious bid for the seat since the early 1960s. Pelosi has kept this tradition going. Since her initial victory in 1987, she has been re-elected 10 times, receiving at least 75% of the vote. She has never participated in candidates' debates.


Robert Byrd - Democrat






Born in 1917, is much much older than John McCain. A previous member of the KKK. Know in the senate as "The King of Pork" and refers to himself as "Big Daddy"


Byrd witnessed Klan parades during his childhood in Matoaka, West Virginia. Byrd joined the Ku Klux Klan when he was twenty four in 1942. His local chapter unanimously elected him Exalted Cyclops.

According to Byrd, a Klan official told him, "You have a talent for leadership, Bob... The country needs young men like you in the leadership of the nation." Byrd later recalled, "suddenly lights flashed in my mind! Someone important had recognized my abilities! I was only 23 or 24 years old, and the thought of a political career had never really hit me. But strike me that night, it did."Byrd held the titles Kleagle (recruiter) and Exalted Cyclops. Byrd worked as a welder for warships in a Baltimore, Maryland shipyard during World War Two.

When Byrd was twenty eight years old, he wrote about the 1945 racial integration of the military to segregationist Mississippi Senator Theodore Bilbo:

I shall never fight in the armed forces with a Negro by my side... Rather I should die a thousand times, and see Old Glory trampled in the dirt never to rise again, than to see this beloved land of ours become degraded by race mongrels, a throwback to the blackest specimen from the wilds.*

*Robert C. Byrd, in a letter to Sen. Theodore Bilbo (D-MS), 1944


Byrd is well known for steering federal dollars to West Virginia, one of the country's poorest states. He is called by some the "King of Pork." After becoming chair of the Appropriations Committee in 1989, Byrd sought to steer, over time, a total of $1 billion for public works in the state. He passed that mark in 1991, and the steady stream of funds for highways, dams, educational institutions, and federal agency offices has continued unabated over the course of his membership. More than thirty pending or existing federal projects bear Byrd's name. He commented on his reputation for attaining funds for projects in West Virginia in August 2006 when he called himself "Big Daddy" at the dedication to the Robert C. Byrd Biotechnology Science Center.