With the sad news that Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, has passed away, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., is now third in the line of presidential succession, behind the vice president and House Speaker John Boehner. Vice President Joe Biden administered the oath of office to Leahy Tuesday on the Senate floor.
As NBC’s First Read points out: If he weren’t VP, Joe Biden would have been the pro tempore (he was elected in 1972). With Inouye’s passing and Democratic Sen. Daniel Akaka’s upcoming retirement, the next Senate will have just one remaining WWII veteran: Sen. Frank Lautenberg (who served in Army Signal Corps).









