Reply #20: Yea, I realize you were talking about chain of command

[Hippo_Tron]

I'm just not sure there's anything official that say that the VP and then the Secretary of State follow the President in the executive chain of command. I honestly think it depends on the President. Given Cheney's stature in the administration I'd be pretty certain that Bush has Cheney take over every time he steps out to go to the bathroom.

But lets take when Bush Senior was in office. I find it hard to believe that Poppy would ever let Dan Quayle get anywhere near making an executive decision if he could avoid it.

Yes, the West Wing portrays a particularly strong Chief of Staff but in real life the Chief of Staff is still responsible for managing the day to day business of the White House and formally is the closest advisor to the President. So it would make sense that he would continue to function in his role managing the White House in the absence of the President.

There's no reason that the Chief of Staff would all of a sudden start taking orders from the Secretary of State or a VP who wasn't acting President unless the President made it clear that one of those two would be in charge in his absence.