Ground May be Shifting on Syria in Congress

White House officials may be in agreement on the question of military intervention in Syria -- they're against it, for now -- but there is no such consensus on Capitol Hill.

The split between the hawks, led by Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain, and skeptics like Republican Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee and Democratic Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia, has been evident for months. But now some of those in the middle, who have mostly kept their heads down up to this point, are starting to stir. And in the wake of the Houla massacre over the weekend, they are suggesting that a more proactive U.S. stance may be necessary.

Michigan Democrat Carl Levin, the chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, is the most prominent voice to publicly muse about future intervention in Syria, which he says will have to be led by Turkey. Sen. Ben Nelson, a Democratic moderate from Nebraska, also issued a release this week saying that unless Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad leaves power voluntarily (doubtful), "military intervention is inevitable.”

It will be interesting to see, when both chambers are back at work next week, whether this indicates the start of a groundswell amongst the plurality of members who have staid on the fence on Syria up until now.

Another Casualty of the Culture Wars

It's hard to find anyone who disagrees with the notion that modern day slavery or "human trafficking" is an awful practice, even on Capitol Hill, where members disagree about pretty much everything. That's why a law to help combat the practice has been such a novelty over the last decade -- every time it comes up for re-authorization, it sails through Congress with unanimous backing.

Not this year. In a piece I wrote for last week's CQ Weekly magazine, I look at how the bipartisan consensus that has supported the bill's passage in the past crumbled last fall thanks to a dust-up between Obama administration officials at the Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. For five years, the Bishops Conference had overseen a grant program to assist trafficking victims in the United States. HHS decided not to renew the grant in late September because the group refused to reimburse subcontractors for reproductive health services that conflicted with the Catholic faith -- i.e. birth control and abortion.

In the midst of all the election year politicking and posturing, the talk of wars on women and religion, it doesn't take much more than the mention of the a-word to get politicians twisted in knots. Suffice to say, House Republicans are now completely at odds with Senate Democrats, and even some Senate Republicans, over how to proceed on the bill. That does not bode well for its passage given all the other legislative issues competing for floor time.

Rubio Does Diplomacy

Freshman Sen. Marco Rubio has been carving out a niche in foreign policy since he joined the chamber last year (something I blogged about last fall). But the Florida Republican -- and a top GOP vice presidential contender -- hadn't done any high-profile overseas diplomacy until last weekend, when he made a trip to Cartagena, Colombia for the sixth annual Summit of the Americas, a gathering of the leaders of the Western Hemisphere.

The trip was natural enough from a policy standpoint for the senator -- a bilingual Cuban-American and the ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere. But the politics of the visit are also unmistakeable, as I wrote about for Roll Call this week. Much of Rubio's cache as a potential VP pick for presumptive GOP presidential Mitt Romney stems from his appeal to Latino-American voters. But it turns out that outside of Florida and D.C., he is an unknown quantity to much of that constituency. Vice presidential nominees are also often looked to to bring national security and foreign affairs chops to the ticket, a particular plus in this case since Romney has focused on his business and management acumen.

Rubio smartly focused most of his media outreach in Cartagena to the Spanish-speaking outlets. So combined with the Secret Service prostitution scandal, which dominated the English-language news coverage out of the Summit, his trip flew almost entirely under the radar in Washington. But it demonstrates that, as much as he may deny it, he and his advisors are pursuing a savvy strategy to raise his profile and his gravitas within key political spheres, maybe for 2012, maybe beyond.

Afghanistan Unraveling

Things have gotten ugly in Afghanistan in the past week. The worst setback, by far, was the massacre of Afghan civilians by a rogue U.S. soldier, but new demands from Afghan President Hamid Karzai, the Taliban's withdrawal from peace talks and a would-be-attack during Defense Secretary Leon Panetta's visit on Wednesday didn't make the picture any rosier.

The latest developments will only make it harder for the Obama administration to sell their long-term vision for Afghanistan on Capitol Hill. As a colleague and I reported in Congressional Quarterly's magazine on Monday, there is already serious resistance in Congress to several pillars of Obama's strategy for stabilizing Afghanistan as foreign troops withdraw. 

In interviews this week senators on both sides of the aisle expressly avoided  knee jerk reactions (CQ, subscription required) to the civilian killings, and there were few signals that anyone was changing their stance about the pace of troop withdrawals between now and 2014. But these events will inevitably reinforce security concerns for American advisers and diplomats and play into the argument that the international presence has worn out its welcome in Afghanistan. And that throws into doubt future Hill support -- and dollars -- for the counterterror/training/development footprint the administration has envisioned maintaining after security responsibility is shifted to the Afghans.

Bullying by Another Name

There aren't too many occasions for profanity-laced tirades with press staff on the foreign affairs beat (thank goodness), but I still get my hackles up reading this WaPo story about the verbal abuse the White House press shop metes out to reporters for stories it doesn't like.

I've never understood this practice. As far as I'm concerned, screaming and cursing at people by phone or e-mail is unprofessional, unproductive and just plain rude. Arguing that this is "how it's always been done," as White House spox Jay Carney seems to imply in the WaPo piece, is no excuse. When you are in a professional setting, discussing the way people are handling their professional duties, there are plenty of ways to hash out disagreements or correct potential errors without resorting to name calling, f-bombs and threats. It isn't a question of whether the White House press corp can "take it," it's a question of whether that approach is the best way to improve the journalism. I doubt it.

I was shocked starting out as a young 20-something reporter in Washington that this was how middle-aged press flacks sought to handle their business. It struck me as entirely juvenile.

I haven't changed my opinion since then, but I've also learned that more than that, it's a strategy to brow-beat and intimidate reporters who portray these flacks' bosses in an unfavorable light. Young press aides pick up these tactics from their seniors, and the cycle churns on. That shouldn't make it accepted practice.

After all, wasn't is President Obama who called for an "adult conversation" in Washington?

The War's Over, Stephen

As the Washington Post noted this morning, it's been an understated end (yes, REAL end, not that "we're starting the drawdown" 2010 announcement or the administration's "we couldn't reach an agreement to keep troops here any longer" revelation earlier this fall) to what for years was the most politically explosive of American military operations. Of the commentary and reaction that has been circulating over the last 24 hours on Iraq, this Stephen Colbert's show with Gen. Ray Odierno Wednesday night struck me as one of the more fitting ways to mark the withdrawal of the final U.S. troops from Iraq.

Remember, it was Colbert who took his whole show to Baghdad when American attention to the conflict was waning in 2009.

Click here to see Ray & Stephen (sort-of) harmonize on "I'll be Home for Christmas." 

GOP Attacks Obama's Foreign Policy Cred

Given Obama's polling on foreign policy and national security issues -- definitely his strong suit these days, particularly when compared to his ratings on jobs and the economy -- this line of attack does not seem like the wisest general election strategy to me.

Appealing to the GOP primary base is another story ...