A curious thing....I’m wondering if anyone ever did a analysis of what would have happened if the plane had hit the capital...say earlier than the others. How many senators and congressmen were there at that time in the morning, and what might have happened. It might have been a greater drain on public view of America....had 60 senators and 200 congressmen been taken out of action. It would have been weeks before they could sat a majority of senators and representatives down...at some alternate location...and the Patriot Act might have been ten times more stringent than what we have today. Its a interesting “what if” scenario.
This scenario was explored in Tom Clancy’s “Debt of Honor” and “Executive Orders.” Link below is about a debate on this issue in Congress:
http://usgovinfo.about.com/cs/uscongress/a/aanewcongress.htm