(2002-03-01) d

Washington Post on the Shadow Government. Dick Cheney's survival ensures constitutional succession, one official said, but "he can't run the country by himself."... Only the Executive Branch is represented in the full-time shadow administration. The other branches of constitutional government, Congress and the judiciary, have separate continuity plans but do not maintain a 24-hour presence in fortified facilities. Hmm, interesting question of succession for the Supreme Court. There's not any extra Justices to hide away. Therefore a nuclear explosion in Washington DC would take out them all. Leaving it to the other branches to appoint/approve new Justices. Which, at such a time, would be even more skewed in perspective than now. And we'd have to live with those changes for a long long time...