“Hey, what can I do, I’m only in the 3rd-most powerful position in the government. Don’t blame me”.
Actually, that would be the Speaker of the House
Whose 2nd then? Certainly not the VP — he has no real power at all unless the president dies.
In my view, the President is the most powerful, followed by the speaker of the house (because they can do spending, and they can pass things with a bare majority), and 3rd is the head of the senate.
As a whole, the supreme court has more power, but no one judge has very much power.
BTW, if you were thinking about the presidential succession, the senate majority leader isn’t in the list — it’s the PRESIDENT PRO TEMPORE of Senate, (I think that is Robert Byrd right now).