Conspiracy Theorists Believe Bush Will Cancel 2008 Presidential Elections: NONSENSE!

Ahhh, more conspiracy notions to dispel!

The topic is NSPD-51, an Executive Order which ensures the continuation of the federal government in the event of a catastrophic attack or natural disaster. It calls for the President to take charge of government operations in the event that something really bad happens.

Some with very active imaginations have taken this to mean that President Bush will declare martial law and cancel the elections on a whim to begin his "reign" as dictator.

That's nonsense.

Let's imagine one scenario that this Executive Order is truly designed to deal with:

Washington is destroyed by a terrorist nuclear bomb while the government is in session, and most members of the House and Senate are killed. Also, the President, Vice President, most of the Joint Chiefs and many of the Cabinet members are dead.

In this hypothetical situation, the Presidency passes to...oh, the Secretary of Energy, who is twelfth in line of succession and overseas on business. He/she flies home and is sworn in somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean.

The new President is going to be pretty busy, trying to figure things out and wondering where to start.

Where the conspiracy theorists are going crazy is the discussion over whether to reconstitute the Congress immediately or not. The Constitution stipulates that in the event of the death or incapacitation of a member of Congress that an election is held for the seat.

But what would happen if all 535 members of Congress were dead?

Consider this: it would take some time to organize elections in every state, and then designate a new national capitol for the reconstituted Congress to meet at. The directive gives the President emergency powers to manage the situation, and begin to get things in place for setting the government back up.

The reason that it does this is that if our government is decapitated, it assumes that the Executive Branch will recover first. It's easier to swear in a duly appointed Cabinet member as President than it is to organize an election, have candidates campaign, stage the election, get them to the capitol and swear them in. That's how the law is written.

Of course, the governors might appoint the new slate of Representatives and Senators. But even then, where would they meet? Someone would have to coordinate that.

One troubling thing that is giving the theorists ammunition are the secret annexes to this Presidential Order. Only the Administration knows what's in the various annexes, and this is driving the conspiracy discussion along. There are rumors of martial law being declared (possibly) for the purpose of making the President a dictator (highly unlikely).

That's the spirit of this Presidential order as I read it. If President Bush has one obsession (and a flaw), it's national security and protecting the country.

Bush isn't going to stop the elections due to terrorism. Other nations have held elections in the wake of deadly terrorist attacks, such as Spain in 2004.

Here's what will likely happen in October/November/December of this year:

• There will be no terrorism before the election. If there is, it'll be small-scale.
  
• Washington, DC, will not fall into the Atlantic Ocean.
• An asteroid will not strike Capitol Hill and level all of Washington.
  
• The election will be held, a winner will be decided.
• The transition will begin.
• President Bush and VP Cheney will leave office on January 20th, 2009, on time and without strings attached.
  
• The 44th President will take office on the same day.
• The conspiracy theorists will look silly again.

That's my two cents.

Here's the complete list of Executive Orders from the National Archives dating back to 1937.