No Reichstag fire, But...

     The German Parliament building burnt down, and in the wake and panic of the event, Hitler was able to pass a lot of dictatorial laws, entrenching Nazi power.

     Saw an old hand at legal matters discussing the Bush administration (and not in glowing terms) saying "All he needs now is a fire in the Reichstag."

     I told him that the Bush administration doesn't need that, they just need to keep emptying Congress on security alerts, and that way they get permanently paranoid legislators and get to keep the building!