Whitehouse, GOP working on campaign finance, cybersecurity

WPRI.COM

Ted Nesi

Updated: May 17, 2012 1:06 PM

U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse is undoubtedly a Democrat, but lately it seems he’s spending some significant time trying to work on legislation with his Republican colleagues.

U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., an architect of the McCain-Feingold law, has been talking with Whitehouse among others for a couple of months about Whitehouse’s proposed DISCLOSE Act that would require more information from political donors, The Hill reports:

“I’ve been having discussions with Sen. [Sheldon] Whitehouse [D-R.I.] and a couple others on the issue,” McCain told The Hill. …

Whitehouse said he is excited about the prospect of having McCain as an ally.

“He has a really remarkable record of courage and dedication in this area, so it’s a question of working to make sure the technical issues he wants to address and the technical issues that we want to address make a match and we can find something to agree on,” Whitehouse said. “We are beginning those discussions, but they’ve come to no conclusion yet, other than they are going forward amicably.” …

McCain’s support would boost [the legislation's] prospects immediately.

Meanwhile, Politico reports on the junior senator’s efforts to push stalled cybersecurity legislation:

With no sign of a solution to a partisan Senate impasse on two competing cybersecurity bills from Joe Lieberman and John McCain, it seems the best chance for Senate passage of a cyber bill this year lies with other senators who are now trying to steer the debate. Sens. Lindsey Graham and Sheldon Whitehouse are working together to find a compromise between the two bills. And Whitehouse, along with Sens. Jon Kyl, Barbara Mikulski and Roy Blunt, plans to hold a classified briefing for senators to discuss the similarities and differences ….

Meanwhile, Whitehouse is looking like a lock for reelection in November – this week 538′s Nate Silver put the odds of him winning a second term at 99%. (That’s not a typo.) But Republican Barry Hinckley is still gamely trying to make a race out of it, sending press releases like this one today: “Senate Democrats Refuse To Offer a Budget Resolution For Third Straight Year.”

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