State of emergency.

• Author: DeArmon, Don
• Position: Letter to the editor

As a good Democrat, I won't vouch for the former House Judiciary Committee chairman James Sensenbrenner (R-Wisc.) in the debate over how to reconstitute the House of Representatives in a national emergency ("Death Wish," by Avi Klein, November). But I think Klein ignores one important reason for not wanting appointed House members because he is thinking too conventionally.

My strong support for an elected House in the event of a terrorist attack that kills half the representatives is not just my affection for tradition. I believe the legitimacy of decision-making derived from an elected House would be of the highest importance in a crisis. Certainly, an elected House is superior to the truly wacky idea proposed by Rep. Brian Baird (D-WA), where governors would be limited to a list of successors provided in advance by the dead members of Congress themselves. He and Norman Ornstein seem to lack confidence that governors will make the right decisions, apparently believing that ensuring the partisan make-up of the House is the highest priority during an emergency.

But Baird, Ornstein and the commission are thinking about conventional...