HAIL TO THE CHIEF?:

If elected, Mondale will benefit from rules change (The Hill, 10/30/02)

If former Vice President Walter Mondale is elected to succeed the late Sen. Paul Wellstone (D-Minn.), he won’t come back as just another senator.

Even though he would still be junior to his former aide, freshman Democrat Mark Dayton, Mondale would benefit from a change in Senate rules ordered by the Senate in 1977 to honor his political mentor, the late Vice President Hubert Humphrey (D).

Under a standing order of the Senate, Mondale would become deputy president pro tem.

That would put Mr. Mondale four heartbeats away from the presidency, assuming Robert Byrd were to pass on to his reward prior to a terrorist attack that took out President Bush, Vice President Cheney, and Speaker Hastert. Such an eventuality used to seem the stuff of Fletcher Knebel potboiler fiction, but these days who'd even blink? Posted by Orrin Judd at October 30, 2002 5:14 PM