Transformers

So maybe it was a big deal....

Four senators, all Democrats, high-profile types: The Majority Leader, Al Franken, Feinstein from California, Wyden from Oregon, all saying that the power grid has to be better protected and federal regulators have to do what they can - what they are authorized by Congress to do - in support of that goal. For a change, it’s something the government can do that isn’t overtly intrusive into everyone’s daily lives. Difficult not to oppose it, for that reason. Still, there’s a undercurrent of political will here - the all-Democrat sponsorship, the insistence on federal regulation under current law, the avoidance of calls-to-action by ordinary people - that raises a suspicion that this is about more than doing The People’s Work for The People.

In fact, it keeps raising comparisons to Benghazi, where not calling it a terrorist attack is bad, but saying what it really IS could be worse. By escalating, these Senators are ensuring that someone is paying attention to whatever it is, inoculating the President against blowback if something bad does happen - by extension, ensuring that Democrats as a whole don’t get blamed and making them soft on matters of national security. If it turns out that the perpetrators are dangerous but inept, they haven’t wasted any political capital. And if it is a problem, why, they’ve done what they should do.