Department of Homeland Security has asked the Justice Department last week
to review what legal steps would be needed to cancel or delay the November presidential election in case of terrorist attack.
So says a Newsweek story, cited this morning by Dave Winer, and now confirmed by Bush administration officials to Reuters, CNN, and more.
During the War of 1812, the British Army burned Washington and sacked
the White House. During the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln
campaigned for re-election and won. We managed to re-elect Franklin D
Roosevelt during World War II. No Federal elections have been delayed by any previous war.
During the 1950s in NH, my grammar school held weekly drills where we
crawled under our wooden desks
for protection against a Soviet atom bomb. Several big buildings
downtown had “bomb shelter” signs. One windowless room in the
basement of my house was kept stocked up with canned goods. Notice all
this was happening in New Hampshire–I can only imagine the
level of anxiety some place like Manhattan.
And yet, with the prospect of an attack that could level cities across
the nation, no plans were made to scrap the Constitution in response.
Brian Roehrkasse, from Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel, says the Bush team is concerned that terrorists might influence US elections as did the train
bombings in Madrid, three days before the Spanish general
election. The ensuing Spanish election then threw out a pro-Bush government and installed an anti-Bush government.
Well, that’s a pretty naked revelation of
the Bush team’s motivation, and I’ll be surprised if Brian Roehrkasse
is still an official spokesman tomorrow.
Our Constitution makes no provision for an “emergency” that would let a
US President postpone Presidential elections. Can you guess why the
Constitution doesn’t allow for this? For extra credit, list three
“emergencies” that could have been cited by President Richard Nixon as
reasons to cancel the 1972 election.
Please blog this and please join me in shooting down this very
dangerous trial balloon from the Bush administration. I’m happy to say
that the conservatives over at FreeRepublic.com (most of them) don’t
like this idea one bit better than I do.
This is a story I plan to follow, and if you want to join me, here’s the latest word online from Google News and from Feedster.