On Capitol Hill, more calls for Obama to seek authorization on ISIS
Lawmakers on Capitol Hill are starting to shift there tone when it comes to whether the President should seek Congressional authorization to strike Islamic militants inside Syria.
Last week, when members were still in their home districts, most of the lawmakers who were interviewed by CBS News and other media outlets said President Obama has the authority to launch strikes against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) without seeking Congressional approval. Most of those lawmakers sit on national security committees and have been receiving briefings about ISIS for some time. Rep Buck McKeon, R-Calif., who chairs the House Armed Service Committee, said again today that when it comes to striking ISIS, "I think [the president] will do what he's going to do. And we will have to sort the things out later."
But now that all the members are back and starting to get their heads around the ISIS threat, more and more of them -- Democrats and Republicans -- are starting to argue that Mr. Obama should seek a vote from Congress authorizing strikes.
The most high profile call came today from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who said right before he headed to the White House for a meeting today that, "The president should be seeking congressional approval, period, for whatever he decides to do -- because that's the way you hear from those of us who represent everyone in the country. That's the way you get congressional support."
On the Senate floor, Sen Tim Kaine, D-Va., said "I rise particularly today to urge the president not just to inform us of what he plans to do but to follow the constitution and seek congressional approval to defeat [ISIS]. I do so for two reasons. First, I don't believe that the President has the authority to, quote, 'go on offense' and wage an open-ended war on [ISIS] without Congressional approval. And second, in making the momentous decision to authorize military action, we owe it to our troops who risk their lives to do our collective job and reach a consensus supporting the military mission that they are ordered to complete."
A short time later, Sen Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., also went to the floor to back up Kaine's comments.
"Any time our country is expected to have a military action, especially in the Middle East again, it needs to have the full support of the American people, and that starts here," he said.
Despite these new public calls for more Congressional consultation, most members secretly (or not so secretly) hope they don't have to take such a vote. First of all, it's two months before Election Day, and this is not a vote they want on their records if things in Syria go south.
Second, while most members believe the U.S. should go after ISIS, they're not entirely comfortable with a prolonged engagement and they're extremely uncomfortable with the possibility that this could lead to U.S. combat troops on the ground in Syria down the road -- something the president has, at least for now, ruled out.
And finally, many of them have been to this rodeo before -- most recently when the President embarrassingly failed to get Congressional authorization for striking Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime last year -- and they're worried that if Congress gets overly involved, you will end up with (as House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., put it) "535 foreign policy experts" in Congress "trying to run the military."
The White House has not signaled any intention or desire to seek Congressional authority, and after meeting with Congressional leaders Tuesday the White House released a statement saying the president told them he did not need additional permission from Congress. And neither Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., or House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, have signaled that they intend to hold such a vote.
As he emerged from a Senate Intelligence Committee briefing on ISIS Tuesday evening, Senator Angus King, I-Maine, made a good point when asked about whether he thinks Congress should vote on striking ISIS.
"That question can only be answered after we hear the president's plan" tomorrow night, he said.
