I actually am glad that Sens. Olympia Snowe, Gail Collins, and Dick Lugar are asking the White House to hold off on issuing an executive order to address our country’s cybersecurity vulnerabilities. The issue should be addressed by Congress. But I have to ask these moderate Republican senators, two of which will not be back next year, what people will say if we suffer a devastating cyberattack and the president didn’t take executive action to overcome Republican obstinacy? Let me remind everyone what went down:
Rarely will you find the ACLU and national security experts from the George W. Bush administration on the same side of a political debate. But that’s what happened as Senate leaders worked toward a compromise on cybersecurity legislation, which everyone from the nation’s largest civil liberties group to the U.S. government’s spy chief, NSA head Gen. Keith Alexander, ended up supporting.
OK, not everyone. The Cybersecurity Act, co-sponsored by Republican Susan Collins and independent Joe Lieberman, was blocked Thursday by a GOP filibuster. A cloture vote, which requires 60 “ayes,” failed 52-46.
So, the bill has broad bipartisan support. But John McCain and the Chamber of Commerce don’t like it so Mitch McConnell came up with a plan to kill it through an endless stream of non-germane amendments.
Republicans weren’t trying to filibuster the bill, according to [McConnell’s] statement—they were trying to improve it with a few additional amendments, and the mean old Democrats refused to even consider these amendments.
So what were those amendments? Well, there were more than 70 in all. Some were relevant to the bill—others, less so. Among the Republican proposals was one from Utah Republican Mike Lee to ban abortions in the District of Columbia for women after their first 20 weeks of pregnancy. And then there was this innovative and thoughtful cybersecurity idea, suggested as an amendment by McConnell himself: Repeal Obamacare.
It was so absurd that it strained the friendship between Joe Lieberman and John McCain:
At a meeting last week, Mr. Lieberman got into an argument with Mr. McCain, his closest ally and friend in the Senate, about his opposition to the bill. Mr. Lieberman questioned why Mr. McCain was doing the bidding of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and asked what Mr. McCain would say if the nation was crippled by a cyberattack.
Mr. McCain angrily said his reputation on national security issues was unquestionable.
Actually, it’s McCain’s record of crashing airplanes that is unassailable. His judgment on national security issues is one of the worst for any senator in this country’s history. I think Joe Lieberman asked a good question, don’t you? And I know it’s the same question that people will ask the president if he doesn’t act. So, either John McCain relents and lets a cybersecurity bill pass or the president will have to act alone.