3/18/2002
On March 1, the news broke that there was a "shadow government," as everyone is calling it, officially called the COG or Continuity of Government. Highly placed members of the government were rotating in and out of a secret location, ready to step in should someone destroy Washington. Plans for such a thing had existed before, but never invoked. But this administration has a fondness for the melodramatic gesture, and nothing could be better for its theater of fear than open preparations for the darkest of contingencies. The COG makes Americans feel like we're facing an imminent and overwhelming threat; Bush prospers whenever we feel that way.
The sticky point about the COG is that its designers accidentally left out the legislature and the judiciary, who in the event of a nuclear assault will evidently be obliged to escape by their own means. Indeed some have wondered how the COG would establish its credentials with Congress if it were called on to assume governmental functions.
A good question, but sadly not a difficult one to answer. The "shadow government" would likely have no more interest in conferring with Congress than does the fleshly government that casts it. Its legitimacy would be established by the quiet readiness of its guns, and the magic words would be "national security."