No no no, cry the Republicans, we must not have laws requiring candidates to alert the FBI if a foreign government – say, Saudi Arabia? North Korea? Turkey? – offered help. That would be…erm…umm…inconvenient! That’s it! It would be too much trouble, so no.

Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) blocked an effort by Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) to pass a bill via unanimous consent requiring campaigns to report any offers of foreign assistance to the FBI.

“We are all for free and fair and honest elections. … These reporting requirements are overbroad. Presidential campaigns would have to worry about disclosure at a variety of levels. So many different levels. Consider this: vendors that work for a campaign, people that are supplying some kind of voter service to a campaign. … It would apply to door knockers, it would apply to phone bankers, down to any person who shares their views with a candidate.”

Warner then countered that Blackburn’s reading of the legislation is “not accurate .., The only thing that would have to be reported is if the agent of a foreign government or national offered that something that was already prohibited.”