Jack O'Dwyer's Newsletter, the "inside news of public relations," had a fascinating item in its August 26 edition on the president's televised Lewinsky speech. Big-league PR executives commented on Clinton's body language and tone of voice and whatnot. One of them, however, disdained all such talk of style as a news media "obsession" and returned instead to first principles.
"New York counselor Robert Dilenschneider," the newsletter reports, believes a presidential resignation or impeachment is unlikely "because Democrats do not want Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich as Vice President (replacing Al Gore who would become President)."
Yes, that would be a problem. But it wouldn't happen. It is true that the nation's rules of presidential succession hold -- as only a few schoolboys but every speaker of the House knows -- that when the president and vice-president are simultaneously incapacitated, the speaker becomes president. But if Al Gore became president, he would name a new vice president, who would be confirmed by the Senate. Newt would stay in third place.
But hey. THE SCRAPBOOK is charmed by the idea of a Dilenschneider Amendment to the Constitution, which would go something like this: If the president gets impeached, the vice president takes his place . . . and everyone else in the country gets to move up a chair, too!
Think of it: Newt gets to be vice president, president pro tempore of the Senate Strom Thurmond becomes the oldest speaker ever. Betsy McCaughey Ross gets to be governor of New York, Avis takes over as the number-one car-rental agency, and Sammy Sosa wins the home-run title instead of Mark McGwire. And THE SCRAPBOOK gets its own Fox News show.