Maybe not so minor a change

While no one was looking, there were a few minor tweaks to the Constitution, that we’re being told is just coincidental to whatever is going on in the TEPJF hearing room.

Gonzáles Morfín for Prez?

The minor revisions (approved by 17 of the 32 states) allow a President Elect to take his or her oath of office EITHER in the Chamber of Deputies OR before the President of the Supreme Court.  If you recall, there was a movement to prevent Felipe Calderón from entering the Chamber and being sworn in on the First of December 2006, and he took the oath of office in Los Pinos before television cameras … something that the wonkiest of the opposition could add to their list of reasons that Calderón was an illegitimate president (overlooking the fact that AMLO, during his theatrical “alternative presidency” wasn’t sworn in according to the strictest protocols either).

One perhaps more important, and which may factor into however the TEJPF rules, is that there a line of succession, and provisions for President-Elects NOT taking the oath of office for one reason or another … dying (as Obregon did in 1928 before he was sworn in) or if there is no President-elect, or an election was invalidated.  In that case, the Senate President becomes acting President, until a joint session of Congress can appoint an Interim President.  By that way, that individual is a dentist named José Gonzáles Morfín, a plurinomial PAN Senator.

Otherwise, the Secretarío de Gobernación becomes Acting President.  Spelling that out is of some importance, since it had always been assumed that the Sec. de Gob. was acting president (he or she ran the cabinet and the executive branch when the President was unavailable( but Calderón for a time (and he went through a Sec. de Gob. per year) had a Sec. de Gob, Juan Camilo Mouriño, who was born in Spain… and on top of everything else, the last thing needed in figuring out who the next president is, is questions about a birth certificate.  That would be silly… right?