Free Republic

Mitch McConnell is pulling his usual shenanigans and trying to install one of his puppets as the incoming senate majority leader. That got me to thinking... The Constitution does not provide for a "Senate majority leader," but it DOES declare that the Vice President is "president of the Senate." If McConnell gets his puppet installed, could Vice President Vance simply walk into the Senate and say "I'm assuming my duty as president of the Senate," and just shut out the majority leader? Has there been any historical precedent for a V.P. doing something like this? If obstructionist Republicans intend to...

Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont was sworn in Tuesday as president pro tempore of the Senate. As the longest serving Democrat now in the Senate, Leahy moved to third place in the line of presidential succession, behind Vice President Joe Biden and House Speaker John Boehner. Biden swore Leahy in as the successor to Hawaii Sen. Daniel Inouye in the Senate post. Inouye, who also chaired the Senate Appropriations Committee, died Monday at age 88. A vase of white roses was on Inouye’s desk on the Senate floor.