The Ultimate "Vice-Precedence" Vice-Presidents List!

Hey Vice-Precedence Fans!

Sorry its been so long since I have posted a blog. Been very busy working on things for "Vice-Precedence" as well as other things. Life happens you know.

The following is a list I complied in the early days of pitching "Vice-Precedence" to production companies. I recently had the opportunity to go over it again and decided to enhance it a little. Its a list of ALL the veeps who never became President with a few intriguing and/or bizarre facts and even quotes from and about the VP's. Its a great way to familiarize yourself with all the VP's and is also good for a laugh.

The Vice Presidents Themselves:

1.Spiro Agnew - Sued the creator of the "Spiro Agnew Watch."

2.Alben Barkley - While VP at age 71 he married his 38 year old sweetheart - The only VP to marry in office.

3.Joseph Biden- “The one thing I want my kids to remember about me is that I was an athlete. The hell with the rest of this stuff.” Vice-President Joseph Biden on his 40 year political career.

4.John Breckinridge - Indicted for treason when he joined the Confederate Army; he wasn't pardoned until 1958.

5.Aaron Burr – Besides killing Alexander Hamilton in America’s most famous duel while serving as VP, he was also put on trial for treason. Died on his 80th birthday, on the same day that his divorce from his 2nd wife became final, on grounds of HIS adultery.

6.John Calhoun - President Andrew Jackson said he would "hang Calhoun as high as Haman" for his part in the South Carolina revolt of 1832.

7.Dick Cheney - Shot a guy in the face and also has lesbian daughter.

8.George Clinton - Wanted New York to be its own country, and because he was the richest man in the state, he would be king.

9.Schuyler Colfax - Nicknamed "Smiler", he was almost impeached for taking bribes.

10.Charles Curtis - Was 1/8 Native American Indian; his great-grandmother was a Kaw. "1/8 Kaw Indian and 7/8 incompetent," says one historian.

11.George Dallas - Nominated by his brother-in-law. The city is NOT named after him.

12.Charles Dawes - Won the Nobel Peace Prize for the Dawes Plan to rebuild Europe after WWI, but it put such a huge strain on the German economy that it allowed Hitler to seize power in Germany, causing WWII.

13.Charles Fairbanks – Fairbanks, Alaska is named after him. “No public speaker can more quickly drive an audience to despair.” The Nation magazine on VP Fairbanks speaking skills.

14.John Nance Garner - "The Vice-presidency isn't worth a bucket of warm piss." - Vice President Garner

15.Elbridge Gerry -The dirty political trick "gerrymandering" is named after him. At the Constitutional Convention argued that the vice-presidency was pointless and refused to sign.

16.Al Gore - The lead in one of the biggest grossing documentaries of all time. Winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, Grammy, Oscar, and the 2000 popular vote, but not the Presidency.

17.Hannibal Hamlin - While VP served as a cook in Maine Coast Guard for 60 days, peeling potatoes, never rising above the rank of private.

18.Thomas Hendricks - Racist who voted against 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments, the amendments that freed the slaves and gave them citizenship and civil rights.

19.Garret Hobart - Cast deciding vote on Philippine independence, he voted to make them an American colony.

20.Hubert Humphrey - President Johnson dressed him up as a cowboy and in an oversize 10-gallon hat and paraded him in front of the press, laughing at Humphrey the whole time.

21.Richard Johnson - Never married, but had 3 common-law wives, all his former slaves. Sold one after she ran away.

22.William King – Most likely a homosexual. Nicknamed "Aunt Fancy" and "Miss Nancy," he took the oath of office in Cuba. Died 46 days later.

23.Thomas Marshall - "Once there were two brothers. One ran away to sea: the other was elected vice-president of the United States. And nothing was heard of either of them again." - Vice President Thomas Marshall. Should have been made President after Woodrow Wilsons stroke. The First Lady and presidents doctor conspired to make sure Wilson stayed President even though he was incapacitated.

24.Walter Mondale - As the Democratic Presidential candidate in 1984, Mondale won 1 state-his home state. Has been mentioned 3 times on “The Simpsons” and once on "Futurama", most memorably for having the U.S. Navy’s laundry ship named for him.

25.Levi Parsons Morton - Turned down offer to be Vice-President under Garfield, if he had accepted, would have become President within a year, due to Garfield’s assassination. Drove the first rivet into the Statue of Liberty. Died on his 96th birthday.

26.Dan Quayle - Misspelled "potato" at grade school spelling bee,was burned in the most famous VP debate in history with “You’re no Jack Kennedy.”, and argued with fictional TV character Murphy Brown.

27.Nelson Rockefeller – Was so rich he donated his VP salary to charity. Refused to live in official VP residence because his own mansion was nicer. Funded "Citizen Kane" but never had any interest in seeing it. Died of a heart attack while having sex with his 27 year old mistress.

28.James Schoolcraft Sherman – Native Americans gave him a name in their language meaning “Four-Eyes”. Nicknamed "Sunny Jim" he received 3,500,000 votes for Vice-president... after he died.

29.Adlai Stevenson - Not the one you may have heard of, but his grandfather. Nicknamed “The Headhunter”.

30.Daniel Tompkins – Signed the bill banning slavery in New York. Became an alcoholic while VP and a year after he left office died broke and drunk at 51. It turned out the state of New York owed him $100K.

31.Henry Wallace - Invented new strands of corn, strawberries and chickens. Ran as Communist and Progressive Presidential candidate in 1948.

32.William Wheeler - After he received V-P nomination, Presidential candidate Rutherford B. Hayes asked his wife, "Who is Wheeler?"

33.Henry Wilson - Birth name Jeremiah Jones Colbath, changed it at age 27. He was an indentured servant for 11 years. Started his own shoe factory, educated himself by reading 1,000 books, then devoted his life to ending slavery and for workers rights.

Hope you enjoyed this. Happy Holidays from "Vice-Precedence"!

Cheney's End of Days and The WORST VP's?

Hey Vice-Precedence Blog Readers! Well, as I posted in my last blog on Monday, there has been a storm of interest over the last week with former VP Dick Cheney what with the renewing of his Secret Service protection for the next 6 months, the revealing of his wanting to send troops into Lackwanna, NY to arrest terrorist subjects, and he and his daughter Liz’s constant criticism of the Obama Administration.

Most of the speculation has been about his and President Bush’s final days in office and their disagreements. It made the cover of TIME Magazine this week with the title-THE FINAL DAYS OF BUSH AND CHENEY. The article called “Legacy Fight: Inside Bush and Cheney’s Final Days” by Massimo Calabresi and Michael Weisskopf is an excellent read full of new information that had not been revealed until now. The article heavily focuses on how Cheney wanted Bush to pardon his former Chief of Staff I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby after his conviction in the Valerie Plame scandal and how Bush ultimately decided not to and the wedge this drove between them. You can read more about it in my previous blog.

In my research, I found that TIME had made a list of who they considered “America’s Worst Vice-Presidents”. Here is their list, which they put in chronological order-they didn’t even bother ranking them in Worst to Least Worst order which shows how little they probably cared about this list.

1.Aaron Burr
2.Elbridge Gerry
3.John C. Calhoun
4.Richard M. Johnson
5.William Rufus King
6.John Breckinridge
7.Hannibal Hamlin
8.Thomas A. Hendricks
9.Thomas Marshall
10.Calvin Coolidge
11.Henry Wallace
12.Richard M. Nixon
13.Spiro Agnew
14.Dan Quayle
15.Richard B. Cheney

I would have to say I disagree with this list quite a bit. Two on the list (Gerry and King) are simply on their because they died very early in their terms. Because you have the misfortune to die it makes you a bad vice-president? Perhaps they should be put in a seperate "No Judgement" category. I've always thought that should be true for William Henry Harrison on the list of "Worst Presidents" too, he's usually included on that list, even though he was sick for his entire term and died 31 days into it. How do you judge a month in office? Or in Kings case, six weeks?

I do agree with the choices of Spiro “The Zero” Agnew who famously said: “If you’ve seen one slum, you’ve seen them all.”, and was forced to resign in disgrace, along with the choice of the virulently racist Democrat Thomas A. Hendricks (whose picture and signature graces this edition of the Blog) who voted against the amendments to free the slaves and give them voting rights, along with a couple of others.

I would disagree greatly with the selection of Thomas Marshall, who served two terms with Woodrow Wilson. They seem to think that Marshall was a negative complainer and hated the office. Most historians (and I) think that Marshall was an intelligent and extremely competent man who truly had a good sense of humor about being the Vice-President with a President who didn’t think much of him. He was always ready with a joke and smile, and famously said: “What this country needs is a good five-cent cigar.” After he retired he was quoted as saying “I don’t want to work, but I wouldn’t mind being Vice-President again.”

I know someone who would disagree with their selection of Henry Wallace: Gore Vidal. In our interview for the documentary, when I asked him who he thought was our best Veep he named Wallace. Just because a man gets the Progressive/Socialist nomination for President, was an admirer of Stalin and fooled into thinking a Soviet slave labor camp was a paradise, and spends his life devoted to raising new strands of corn, strawberries, and chickens doesn’t make you a terrible VP, (hmm, maybe I need to rethink it) although Democratic National Committee chairman Robert Hannegan despised Wallace so much he did everything he could to remove him from the ticket in 1944 and replace him with Truman. Later he said:

“When I die, I would like to have one thing on my headstone: that I was the man who kept Henry Wallace from becoming President of the United States.”

Also, it’s pretty obvious that Burr is on the list simply for the fact that he killed Alexander Hamilton in their famous duel while VP, something that this blog and our film and book will shed some light on. Just because Hamilton is on the ten-dollar bill doesn’t mean he was a better man than Burr, in some ways he was, in others he wasn’t. Hamilton did plenty to get himself in that situation and had plenty of vices as well, as we will reveal. While Burr was Vice-President he was called "one of the best presiding officers the Senate has ever seen."

One of our goals with “Vice-Precedence: Being Number Two in the White House” is to shed more light on all our vice-presidents, to educate people about our VP’s, and separate legend from fact-all while entertaining you. Lists like this are fun to argue about, and while I disagree with some of TIME’s choices and some of their opinions on "Why" a VP made their list, I applaud them just making a list in the first place. What do you think? Who makes your list of Best and Worst VP’s? let us know. Stay tuned for the latest on all our VP’s and thanks for reading.
Matt Saxe