Presidential Succession

As a result of the mid-term election, the Republicans will become the majority party and Mitch McConnell will become the senate majority leader. The majority party switch also has an impact on presidential succession. No change to the first and second in line, of course; Vice President Biden and Speaker of the House John Boehner aren't going anywhere. Do you know who's third in line?

It's the President Pro Tempore, or President Pro Tem, of the Senate, which by custom is the senior senator of the majority party. Currently it's democratic Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont; when the new Senate is sworn in, republican Senator Orrin Hatch, age 80, will assume the title. After the VP, the House Speaker and the President Pro Tem, cabinet secretaries come next, in the order in which their department was created. The first five places in line look like this: 

1. Vice President Joe Biden
2. Speaker of the House John Boehner
3. President Pro Tem of the Senate Patrick Leahy, soon to be Orrin Hatch
4. Secretary of State John Kerry
5. Secretary of the Treasury Jack Lew

You'll notice that all five are men. A few years ago, Senator Robert Byrd was the President Pro Tem. When he died in June, 2010, there was a brief period of time when that position was vacant, with the result that #2 in line was House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and the temporary #3 was Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. To put it another way, #2 and #3 were women, which I thought was cool. Right now the highest ranking woman is Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell, at #8, but when Loretta Lynch becomes Attorney General, she'll slot in ahead of Jewell at #7. 

I know this is total Social Studies nerdville. I think I've written before about how I got interested in presidential succession: it was a plot point on The West Wing. At the end of season 4, President Bartlet temporarily steps down when his daughter is kidnapped. The Vice President had recently resigned due to a sex scandal, so the Speaker of the House, played by John Goodman, is sworn in as the temporary president. That makes the President Pro Tem next in line. Here's the scene:

Note: I just noticed the typo in the word "relieved" in the title below. That's not me, I lifted it intact from YouTube.