Kevin Drum seems unperturbed about talk of the administration trying to postpone/cancel the upcoming presidential election. He cites several difficulties in doing this:
The only body that can change the date of federal elections is Congress.Assuming the Supreme Court agreed, Congress could delegate this power to a federal commission if it so desired.
However, in a couple of weeks everyone goes home for the summer. They come back on September 3rd.
The current target for adjournment of the current congressional session is October 1st.
In other words, supposing that the Justice Department actually decided (suicidally, in my opinion) to propose legislation to create an election commission with the power to reschedule elections, Congress would have a grand total of four weeks to debate and pass it.
I find these arguments unconvincing. Given recent history, namely the Supreme Court's intervention in the 2000 election, the Patriot Act, and Congress' abdication of responsibility in the runup to the Iraq War, I don't find much comfort in the thought of Congress needing time to debate or having a backbone in standing up to the administration.
Given a sufficiently high-profile attack, I can easily see nearly any legislation getting shoved through Congress in the blink of an eye, as long it's got a name that sounds All-American. You have to know that someone in the bowels of the administration is already working on language for this, just like they were for the Patriot Act. The Supreme Court might be a wildcard, but they've proven to be partisan/political enough that I don't necessarily trust them, either. If Congress and the administration wanted to do this I don't think anything could stop them.
Posted by Jason at July 13, 2004 03:55 PM