I think many of us who were watching the build-up to the Syria vote are still trying to get our heads around just what happened yesterday. And I strongly suspect that a lot of folks at the White House are doing the same, though perhaps we’ll find out differently as the story develops. But whether there was more of a plan than we think or this was just a clunky deus ex machina interrupting a play we all knew the end of, yesterday’s developments were actually a very big deal, for reasons I tried to sketch out early yesterday.
Let’s set aside for the moment the domestic political implications for Obama, that this new track (at least for the moment) gets him out of a painful climb-down or congressional defeat. Read More
State Republican officials say Republicans obstruction in Congress is holding up their voter suppression efforts back home.
Whether it’s a real angle to scuttle Syria’s chemical weapons or a highwire climb down on what looked like a bleak outlook on Capitol Hill, this is a really big development. President Obama is saying that Syria votes/strikes are on hold while they explore a potential diplomatic solution tied to an attempt to take international control of Syria’s chemical stockpiles and eventually destroy them.
See my post on the possibility from early this afternoon.
3 year old girl fatally shot with father’s handgun at Yellowstone – three years ago ban on firearms in national parks was lifted.
John Hopkins University has backed down from a demand that one of its professors remove a post about the NSA from the University’s servers.
Within hours of scheduling the Senate’s first procedural vote on the Syria use of force resolution for Wednesday, Harry Reid now says he will delay that vote. More soon …
We now have two Democratic senators today going from yes or leaning yes on supporting use of force in Syria to undecided: Martin Heinrich of New Mexico and Ben Cardin of Maryland. Cardin, it should be noted, voted for the resolution in committee last week.
After tweeting out story about Republicans who were for attacking Syria before they were against it, a few people asked how many Democrats were now making the switch in the opposite direction. Unfortunately for President Obama, the answer is very, very few. All the movement seems to be going in the opposite direction. Sen. Cardin, who just voted yes on the Committee vote, now appears to be wavering.
Progressive Caucus sends White House list of 67 questions on Syria intervention.