An Amusing Footnote to the Attempted Coup

This is partly courtesy of the Washington Post:

Suppose Mike Pence had gone through with the plot, refused to certify the votes from Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Georgia, leaving Biden with only 260 electoral votes, thus no majority. Under the 12th Amendment, the decision then goes to the House, right? With each State casting one vote, and the Republicans leading in number of states where one party has a majority of the seats. So Trump becomes President on January 20, 2021.

Wrong! To do this, the House has to be in Session. But Nancy Pelosi is not only not stupid, she’s probably smarter than anyone else. So what does she do? She declares the House out of Session, and shuts it down, sine die. Republicans object, a member of the Democratic majority is recognized by the Speaker and so moves, and it is so voted. The House cannot exercise its obligation to choose the next President. Just in case, Pelosi orders the Sergeants-at-Arms to prevent a violent takeover, probably even calls on the Capitol Police.

Except that in reality the attack has begun. We don’t know what happens next, since this is a counter-factual, but we do know that Pelosi escaped, as did all House members of both persuasions. And certainly never got back into session, until the 20th. And what happened then?

“The U.S. Constitution and the Presidential Succession Act of 1947 outline the presidential order of succession. ..If the President of the United States is incapacitated, dies, resigns, is for any reason unable to hold his/her office, or is removed from office, he/she will be replaced in the following order:

1. Vice President
2. Speaker of the House….”

Aha! Donald Trump had 232 Electoral votes certified, Joseph Biden 260, neither of them is “able to hold his/her office.” From Trump’s point of view, Biden does not “hold” the office–and vice-versa. Neither does Mike Pence, or Kamala Harris, themselves lacking the necessary 270 electoral votes. This makes the Speaker of the House next-in-line: Nancy Pelosi becomes President on January 20.

At this point in the fantasy, probably nothing can happen–not even if I try to fantasize it. Nothing peaceful or orderly, at any rate, not even as declared by the Republican Supreme Court, who would do nothing determinative, since they all have positive IQs. And even though Dan Quayle and Mike Ludwig were probably not aware of this possibility, they were certainly aware that it was absolutely out of the question, as Dan Quayle told him, for Mike Pence to do any such thing: because it would have meant the end of Constitutional government, and effectively the end of the “United States….”

But the simple moral of this story is that derangement is loose in the land, but has not taken over completely. Better than nothing….

Fredonia, here we come.