Okay, let's say that sometime in 2006, before the Mark Foley scandal hits the media, George W. Bush has some medical issues come up, requires surgery, and because of a freak accident, ends up dead. Not long after, Dick Cheney has a sudden heart attack and dies before appointing a new Vice President.
If I'm correct, this leaves House Speaker Dennis Hastert as President of the United States, inheriting all of Bush and Cheney's issues as well as bringing so many of his to the table. So how does he deal with Mark Foley, and will his sudden increased prominence bring his own "sex with underage males" scandal to light earlier than OTL? Outside of that, it seems like he'd mostly keep following the Bush-Cheney policies during his term.
Then there's all the lobbying issues and non-sex-related crimes he's been accused and convicted of. Could Hastert top Richard Nixon? Could he end up impeached and sent to prison? I think he'd probably resign like Nixon, but his successor will need to pardon him to avoid Hastert winding up in prison. And after the Nixon pardon scandal, I'm not sure they'd do it again, especially if sex crimes were involved.
And that brings to mind who might his potential vice president be? I don't see a Hastert administration ending well, so said VP pick could end up in office themselves? If Hastert resigns, his VP might end up being the Republican nominee in 2008, but by then the world economy will have imploded and honestly I wouldn't be surprised if the Republican Party wouldn't even nominate him just to end the dealings with Hastert and leftover remnants of the unpopular Bush administration leaving the Republican field open that year.
The end result would be a pretty record defeat for the Republicans. Clinton, Obama, whoever, will easily win the biggest Democratic victory since 1964, and probably help the Democrats out big time in other 2008 elections--seems like a couple races could swing Democrat, and Republican candidates in general will have to wage a different campaign than they did OTL. At that point it'll all depend how their administration goes to see how long the Democrats can ride the momentum. It could be interesting how certain laws end up (healthcare law, for one) looking at the more heavily Democratic Congress.
Thoughts, plausibility issues? I just found myself suddenly interested that a Hastert presidency was rather disturbingly close for someone with so many issues.