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| Home Front: Politix |
| Unexpectedly - Syria Might Distract Congress |
| 2013-09-08 |
| President Obama’s decision to seek congressional approval of military strikes against Syria threatens to make an already contentious fall agenda on Capitol Hill even more unstable, heightening the chance of political gridlock. Manufacturing a crisis for political purposes. Congressional leaders, who will return Monday after a five-week break, had planned to use September to position their caucuses for a showdown over government funding levels and a bid to increase the federal debt limit, the third clash over the debt since 2011. The two sides are also jockeying over a proposed immigration overhaul and a continuing struggle over the farm bill, which was a victim of a conservative revolt over food stamps. The graphic videos, obtained by The WaPo, were made public previously on YouTube and other Internet sites. They are among as many as 100 public videos that purport to document victims of the Aug. 21 attack near Damascus. At the request of Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the images were shown to senators Thursday during a classified briefing on whether to authorize limited military strikes against Syrian government targets. Senate GOP leaders have remained largely silent on the issue and an increasingly powerful bloc of libertarian Republicans is leading opposition to a Syria strike; Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) is marshaling support among the more traditional hawkish Republicans. With some Senate liberals opposed, fearing another quagmire like the Iraq war, Obama needs his 2008 presidential rival to bring along a sizable number of Republicans to win approval in the Senate. The Iraq war wasn't a quagmire, bailing out caused a quagmire. Obama would then face the uphill challenge of trying to win approval in the House for attacking Syria. This has been complicated by his refusal to say whether he would abide by the vote if it were defeated, declining to answer the question twice at a news conference Friday closing out his G-20 trip. White House legal advisers say that as commander in chief, Obama has the power to order strikes without congressional consent, but many lawmakers argue otherwise. It was only Bush that was not allowed to do that. “In the Syria vote’s wake will be an even more polarized Congress, a weakened White House, and a House of Representatives in near revolt with a seemingly endless horizon of self-created fiscal cliffs,” a policy analyst for Guggenheim Securities, wrote last week. He said the best outcome for the fiscal fights would be to approve temporary extensions into December to buy time for protracted negotiations. “Whenever Congress finds itself on the edge of a cliff, it tends to build more land.” Interesting observation. |
| Posted by:Bobby |