In breaking news, John Boehner and Eric Cantor have announced they support Obama’s call for a military strike against Syria and expect to vote “yea” on a reasonably limited use-of-force resolution. They seem to be working in close coordination with Nancy Pelosi, who has been consistently trying to protect the president’s left flank since the crisis of chemical weapons by the Assad regime first broke out.
Obama met this morning with leaders from both chambers, and the united House front was not immediately echoed by the Senate. You have to figure Mitch McConnell has some Kentucky politics to deal with insofar as his junior colleague from that state has taken a very different position.
We can only hope that congressional Republican leaders are heading in this direction for their own reasons, and not because they’ve been offered inducements or concessions on other issues. May this moment of peace and comity be replaced by the usual ranting and snarling on fiscal issues unless the GOP has achieved some sort of psychic breakthrough and understands threatening a debt default or a government shutdown is as damaging to U.S. prestige as a “blurred” red line in Syria.
