What If Congress Votes 'No' On Syria?
With Republican House leaders lining up behind President Obama's planned U.S. military strike on Syria, the chances for congressional authorization seemed higher on Tuesday than they did over the weekend.
Still, despite Speaker John Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor's full-throated support for Obama, approval of military action is far from certain. An attack on Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime is unpopular, to say the least. A new Pew Research Center poll indicates 48 percent of the American public opposes such strikes; only 29 percent approve.
A "no" vote in Congress could still happen, then, especially in the GOP-led House, whose members all face re-election next year and where those on the ideological right and left tend to be more distant from the political center than senators.
What would happen if Congress, or one half of it, voted against authorizing a punitive U.S. strike against Syria?
A view shared by the Obama administration and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., alike, is that it would prove disastrous to U.S. standing and trust. After meeting with Obama Monday, McCain said outside the White House:
"If the Congress were to reject a resolution like this, after the president of the United States has already committed to action, the consequences would be catastrophic in that the credibility of this country with friends and adversaries alike would be shredded. And it would be not only implications for this presidency, but for future presidencies as well."