Odd man out

In case you were counting heads (I wasn’t), you would have noticed that Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez was absent during the State of the Union Address last week. That’s because he was selected to be the guy left in charge should disaster fall on the Capitol that night.

One member of the cabinet always sits out in order to insure the succession of power in our government. According to the Presidential Succession Act of 1947, Gonzalez is No. 7 in line for the presidency.

CBS correspondent Mark Knoller has a real interesting post about this subject on the Couric & Co. blog. He talked to former Clinton era Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman about what happened the night in 1997 when he was selected as the go-to guy during the State of the Union.

If you’re curious, here’s the official order of succession:
1) The Vice President
2) The Speaker of the House
3) The President pro tempore of the Senate
4) The Secretary of State
5) The Secretary of the Treasury
6) The Secretary of Defense
7) The Attorney General
8) The Secretary of the Interior
9) The Secretary of Agriculture
10) The Secretary of Commerce
11) The Secretary of Labor
12) The Secretary of Human Services
13) The Secretary of Housing and Urban Development
14) The Secretary of Transportation
15) The Secretary of Energy
16) The Secretary of Education
17) The Secretary of Veterans Affairs
18) The Secretary of Homeland Security

Some interesting notes on this list:

• No. 3 on the list Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia. Scary.
  
• Secretary of Commerce Carlos Guitierrez and Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao are ineligible. Guitierrez was born in Cuba and Chao was born Taiwan. So neither of them could be president.