Obama gets top Republican support on Syria strike

By C. J. Refsland on September 3, 2013 • ( 0 )

My comment: Evidently McCain wasn’t the only Poker winner during this Senate Hearing.

Congressional aides said the top lawmakers on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee reached agreement on a resolution on using military force against Syria.

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama gained ground Tuesday in his drive for congressional backing of a military strike against Syria, winning critical support from House Speaker John Boehner while key Senate Democrats and Republicans agreed to back a no-combat-troops-on-the-ground action in retaliation for a suspected chemical weapons attack.

Officials said the emerging Senate measure would receive a vote Wednesday in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Approval is likely.

“You’re probably going to win” Congress‘ backing, Rand Paul of Kentucky, a conservative senator and likely opponent of the measure, conceded in a late-afternoon exchange with Secretary of State John Kerry.

The leader of House Republicans, Boehner emerged from a meeting at the White House and said the United States has “enemies around the world that need to understand that we’re not going to tolerate this type of behavior. We also have allies around the world and allies in the region who also need to know that America will be there and stand up when it’s necessary.”

Boehner spoke as lawmakers in both parties called for changes to the president’s requested legislation, insisting it be rewritten to restrict the type and duration of any military action.

In the Senate, the compromise was the work of Sens. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., and Bob Corker, R-Tenn., among others. They are the chairman and senior Republican, respectively, on the Foreign Relations Committee, which held a lengthy hearing during the day on Obama’s request for congressional legislation in support of the military reprisal he wants.

The measure would set a time limit of 60 days and says the president could extend that for 30 days more unless Congress has a vote of disapproval.

The measure also bars the use of U.S. ground troops for “combat operations.”

Kerry, testifying before the committee, signaled earlier that the troop restriction was acceptable to the administration. “There’s no problem in our having the language that has zero capacity for American troops on the ground,” he said.

“President Obama is not asking America to go to war,” Kerry said in a strongly worded opening statement. He added, “This is not the time for armchair isolationism. This is not the time to be spectators to slaughter.”

Obama said earlier in the day he was open to revisions in the relatively broad request the White House made over the weekend. He expressed confidence Congress would respond to his call for support and said Assad’s action “poses a serious national security threat to the United States and to the region.”