Slouching toward 25

The Twenty-fifth Amendment to the Constitution was ratified on February 10, 1967.  This is the heart of it, Section 4:

"Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President."

Nobody knows exactly how this would work because there has never been anything remotely resembling a Trump before.  Even when Ronald Reagan was under general anesthesia and close to death at George Washington University Hospital in 1981, nobody thought about convening the Cabinet and starting the paperwork.  All Americans saw was Alexander Haig, the White House chief of staff, proclaiming, "I am in control."  Maybe he was.

Who precisely are the "principal officers of the executive departments"?  The whole Cabinet or just the main ones (State, Justice, Defense, Treasury, the four established by Washington)?  Would a majority have to concur, or all of them?  Never mind "such other body as Congress may by law provide" -- if Congress was on the job, we wouldn't be looking at Twenty-five. 

I ask because cracks and fissures are appearing all over the administration.  It's pretty clear that Rex Tillerson, for example, is getting tired of his treatment by Trump and "that little pisher," as they call Jared Kushner in Texas.  (Parts of Texas.)  Questioned about the post-Charlottesville rant at Trump Tower, he replied, "The president speaks for himself."  He obviously meant to disassociate himself from the white nationalists.  James Mattis is even more disgruntled at this point, urging US troops in Lebanon -- yes, we have troops in Lebanon -- to "hold the line" for American values until a better day dawns.  When there is another squawk about "fire and fury" he insists on a diplomatic solution to North Korea; his response to the transgender ban is documented.  The storm of twitter attacks on Jeff Sessions died down in the preoccupation with other matters, but could well resume now that the disloyal Justice Department has shot down the "wire tapp" libel.  Which leaves Mnuchin, who keeps his own counsel but can't be happy about Trump's promise to shut down the government if he doesn't get his Wall.  As a former Goldman Sachs executive, he knows that for the United States to default on its obligations is not remotely like filing Chapter 11 to skip out on your debts, the official business plan of The Trump Organization.

Last week Mike Pence loaded Mother (in sensible shoes) onto Air Force Two and headed to Houston to show Trump how it's done.  He hugged and prayed and shook every hand in reach; he helped carry debris to the curb; he never once referred to his crowd size, his hand size, or the lying media.  And he praised the hell out of Trump, sounding like a good and faithful servant and only a little like Prince Charles telling an interviewer what a marvelous person his mum is.  Pence is a professional politician and I don't have any use for him or his theocratic world-view, but the prospect of a Pence presidency, acting or otherwise, is so restful, so soothing, so right right now that I went to all the trouble of typing out that portion of the Twenty-fifth.  It's the best we can do.

And if Breitbart and Roger Stone and David Duke don't like it, they can go trump themselves.