Conspiracy tsunami.

Byline: The Register-Guard

At first, the Bush administration's refusal to allow Oregon Congressman Peter DeFazio access to its hush-hush plan for maintaining control in the event of a terrorist attack or other national crisis seems reminiscent of that cornball comeback that people used when you asked them what they did for a living: "I can't tell you, because if I did then I'd have to kill you with my bare hands."

That's at first. Then one can't help but wonder, at least momentarily, if there really might be something in this plan that the administration does not want members of Congress to see. If the conspiracy freaks who eternally warn that the administration is up to no good, perhaps even greasing the skids for martial law, might finally be on to something.

Nah. It seems far more likely that this is the now-predictable response of an administration that has become accustomed to performing even mundane business in secrecy - and, until recently, doing so without any serious challenge from Congress.

And yet ...

With conspiracy bloggers and legal scholars scorching the Internet last week, the administration had a chance to defuse speculation. It could have devised a compromise to allow DeFazio and other members of the Committee on Homeland Security to review the classified document in a setting even more secure than the "bubbleroom" in which members of Congress with the required security clearance typically are allowed to view classified documents.

But there was nothing from the White House. Only an ominous, stubborn - and unsettling - silence.

Now, DeFazio is renewing his push to see the secret file, sending a formal request to Frances Townsend, assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism. The letter also was signed by Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., chairman of the Homeland Security Panel, and Rep. Chris Carney, D-Pa., chairman of the Homeland Security oversight subcommittee.

"We can think of no basis for you to deny members of the Committee on Homeland Security the opportunity to review this document in a secure setting," the letter stated. "This response is as troubling as it is shocking."

Some perspective is in order. It's neither shocking nor suspicious that the administration would want to keep a close hold on a plan intended to maintain government control in the wake of terrorist attacks or an overwhelming natural disaster. The government has made public a portion of the presidential directive, which envisions a range of crisis scenarios and shifts doomsday planning for the first time from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to officials inside the White House.

But such a hold should not preclude members of Congress from having access to the plan, in particular members of the Committee on Homeland Security who are required to sign an oath agreeing not to disclose any classified information that they are exposed to while serving on the panel.

DeFazio and his fellow committee members have given the administration one more opportunity to squelch speculation about its secret plan and allow the congressional oversight that Americans expect and the Constitution requires.

If the administration fails to get it right this time, it will have only itself to blame for the conspiracy tsunami that will invariably follow.