"In 2016 the Russian government, at the direction of Vladimir Putin himself, orchestrated cyber attacks on our nation for the purpose of influencing our election. That is a fact, plain and simple."
-- Jeh Johnson, former secretary of Homeland Security, to the House Intelligence Committee on Wednesday.
Suppose Mexico had tried to hack our election. Suppose some liberal activist group had attempted it.
Consider how the party backing voter identification laws -- while echoing the president who calls the investigation of the Russian matter a "witch hunt" -- might react then.
GOP leaders throughout the nation push these ID laws while expressing great concern about illegal immigrants and other ineligible people voting. Those leaders show far more concern than the evidence warrants, critics argue.
Then Russian hackers go after election systems in 21 states -- something voter ID could do nothing to prevent. Our president responds that this election tampering is a made-up scandal pushed by sore-loser Democrats. That was bluster. Still, his party sheepishly went along.
To be fair, what really gets the president's goat are accusations he knew about the Russian effort, which is wild speculation. He downplays the seriousness of the hacking through his defensiveness. Also, I do not believe for a minute that the president won because of Russian hacking. It was caught in time -- this time.
The attempt is real, though. It happened. I do not like burglars breaking into my house even if they did not have time to steal something this time. I also do not like watchdogs whose barking depends on their preference in burglars.
The president barked about "fraud" aplenty. He spewed allegations of massive voter fraud before the election and refused to say whether he would accept the results. Then he won. Then, after the vote, he spewed more allegations of massive fraud. His evidence? Getting trounced in California and New Hampshire. His bruised ego alone provided enough proof then.
"Witch hunt" indeed. Maybe we are in Oz. Dorothy, a good Kansas Republican, dropped a house on one witch. Now she runs from another as fast as those ruby slippers can carry her. That farm girl has focus. She is going to get down that yellow brick road and have the great wizard grant her wishes, witch or no witch. Meanwhile, the surviving witch is skywriting over the Emerald City from her flying boom. She was recently seen over France, too.
Right about now, Dorothy is also realizing her would-be wish-granter is a very bad wizard.
I never considered the counter-intelligence value of free and open elections before. The spy game should be much more clandestine than what we are seeing. But when the target is an election and not some cabinet, cabal, general staff or rival intelligence agency, the hacking must be large scale and widespread. For instance, hackers must impersonate voting machine manufacturers with customers in dozens of states. This built-in defense of scale is a virtue of our system.
This time, the hacks were ham-handed, much more overt even than they had to be. The attacks grew so flagrant, I wonder if the hackers got too proud of themselves. They like flexing muscle, it seems. Like many a criminal, the Russian government could not help itself from showing off.
I think most people wanting voter ID on one side or those who believe the president was elected by Russian fraud on the other are not cynics pushing what they know is a lie. Each believes the other side is, though.
On one side, they cannot reconcile their belief about what kind of country this is with two successful elections of President Barack Obama. Likewise, the other side cannot reconcile their belief about what kind of country this is with an electorate that would pick the current president over anyone else, and with its eyes open.
They should all get over it. I love my country. I loved my parents, too, but never thought they were perfect. We are letting a common enemy thrive while we eye each other suspiciously.
I like what a British guy once said about what Americans call "dysfunctional families." "In Britain, we call that a family." In a family, brothers and sisters can infuriate each other. Sometimes, they do not speak to each other -- but nobody else better mess with them.
Mess with one of us, you mess with all of us.
We should tell the Russians that.
Commentary on 06/24/2017