Like I said yesterday, Obama hasn’t even made the case that Assad did it yet, let alone that we should respond, or that a response will achieve desired results and not be worse than not responding militarily.
This is the dangerous time, when people who want there to be a strike may seek to precipitate further actions to generate it.
Via NY Post:
Congressional leaders were doubtful yesterday that President Obama will win approval for a military strike against Syria — putting himself in a difficult position to then invoke the War Powers Act and order the bombings anyway.
“I would expect the president to abide by whatever Congress does from this point forward,” Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) told reporters after a classified administration briefing on Syria late yesterday.
Secretary of State John Kerry insisted that Obama has the ability to act without congressional approval.
But when repeatedly asked what the administration would do if Congress votes against military action, Kerry refused to entertain the possibility.
“We are not going to lose this vote,” Kerry insisted on ABC’s “This Week.”
Lawmakers from both parties said Obama faces a tough task convincing Congress to retaliate against the regime of dictator Bashar al-Assad over last month’s gruesome gas attack that killed nearly 1,500 civilians.
Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), ranking Republican on the Armed Services Committee, said, “I don’t think [Congress] will” approve a military strike, while Rep. Peter King (R-Long Island), said of House Republicans: “If the vote were today, it would probably be a no vote.”
Several Democrats who attended yesterday’s closed-door briefing on Capitol Hill were openly skeptical of the president’s plans.
Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.), usually a staunch Obama supporter, said he needed more convincing and wanted the president to assemble an international coalition against Syria.
“The precedent that will be set by engaging Syria militarily without the support of the United Nations, or at least an alternate coalition demonstrating an international consensus, would be problematic,” Scott said.
Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) said the briefing “quite frankly raised more questions than it answered.”
“I found the evidence presented by administration officials to be circumstantial,” he said in a statement.