We are learning more about what our intelligence services know about the Russian attack on our election and elections systems.  This Washington Post article is the most hair raising account yet.  It’s why there’s no uncertainty about it from any of the intelligence officials and the people who saw the intelligence in the Obama Admin.

An attack on an airfield or port would have been easier to deal with than what the Russians did, but could not have been more effective.  Obama and others were trying to raise the may day flag but were thwarted by Republicans, as well as the unprecedented nature of what they were seeing.  I’m sure they were puzzled as to what they could do.

In early September, Johnson, Comey and Monaco arrived on Capitol Hill in a caravan of black SUVs for a meeting with 12 key members of Congress, including the leadership of both parties.

The meeting devolved into a partisan squabble.

“The Dems were, ‘Hey, we have to tell the public,’ ” recalled one participant. But Republicans resisted, arguing that to warn the public that the election was under attack would further Russia’s aim of sapping confidence in the system.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) went further, officials said, voicing skepticism that the underlying intelligence truly supported the White House’s claims. Through a spokeswoman, McConnell declined to comment, citing the secrecy of that meeting.

Key Democrats were stunned by the GOP response and exasperated that the White House seemed willing to let Republican opposition block any pre-election move.

They tried to go straight to state elections officials but were met with skepticism and patented southern states’ rights stupidity.

On Aug. 15, Johnson arranged a conference call with dozens of state officials, hoping to enlist their support. He ran into a wall of resistance.

The reaction “ranged from neutral to negative,” Johnson said in congressional testimony Wednesday.

Brian Kemp, the Republican secretary of state of Georgia, used the call to denounce Johnson’s proposal as an assault on state rights. “I think it was a politically calculated move by the previous administration,” Kemp said in a recent interview, adding that he remains unconvinced that Russia waged a campaign to disrupt the 2016 race. “I don’t necessarily believe that,” he said.

Despite such intransigence, people in the administration feel they didn’t do enough.

But other administration officials look back on the Russia period with remorse.

“It is the hardest thing about my entire time in government to defend,” said a former senior Obama administration official involved in White House deliberations on Russia. “I feel like we sort of choked.”

There should have been more of an effort, earlier, to warn state elections officials. They should have told election officials in states like GA, MI and WI that the election was being rigged for HRC.  Then maybe they would have been alarmed and paid attention.

It is indeed SAD!