Almost No One Wanted An On The Record Vote On Bombing Syria

Not Adam and Steve,  Adam and Aaron-- and both Republican congressmen!

Rumors have been flying that two 30-something Illinois congressmen-- Aaron Schock and Adam Kinzinger-- have been having an affair. Schock is gay-- closeted but gay-- and Kinzinger is also bachelor. Club for Growth is trying to end both of their political careers, though supposedly not because of their sexual affair... or even foreign affairs. Although Kinzinger, particularly, has been more out front in the Syria morass than you usually find him. Not only was he one of the House's biggest supporters of bombing Syria-- a genuine junior version of Lindsey Graham!-- he was also the Republican who exposed his venal colleagues' motivations. "If we had taken this vote, it would've been the most important in ten years," insisted the warlike closet case. "The point I tried to make is if you oppose this on principle, great. But if you oppose this because it's Barack Obama's plan, you should really rethink what your job is." That isn't going to make him more popular with Club For Growth and other extremist groups which are already soliciting tea baggers to run against him-- and his boyfriend-- next year.

One thing is clear, though, many Members of the House, would have done almost anything to avoid a public vote on bombing Syria-- which could still happen. Although warmonger Steve Israel of the DCCC is peddling a poll that insists the vote wouldn't be a factor in 2014, Democrats in swing districts who were seen as being more warmongery than their Republican opponents would have been looking at decreased turnouts from the Democratic base. That had a lot to do, for example, with Ami Bera (D-CA), ignoring Israel's pro-war stand and switching from a sure YES vote to a NO vote. 26% of voters say that if their congressmember votes YES on bombing Syria, it will make it less likely they'd vote for them; despite Israel's dissimulation, that's a big deal in a swing district.

"Everyone's happy there's no vote," a senior GOP Congressional aide told The Cable. "Republicans were being bombarded by constituents who were largely uneducated on Syria. If the president couldn't even articulate a clear rationale for the strikes, how were they supposed to?"

For Democrats, the incentive to stay quiet was even stronger.

"There were a lot of Democrats who didn't come out opposed to the strike because they didn't want to throw the president under the bus," a senior Democratic aide told The Cable. "It's that notion of having a political duty."

That tension-- faced by Republicans and Democrats-- created a bloated demographic of undecided lawmakers who were ultimately rewarded for their silence. According to the Washington Post, more than 150 representatives in the House remained undecided ahead of Tuesday's decision. In the Senate, more than 35 senators remained undecided. With the war vote delayed indefinitely, they can now navigate the politics of intervention with much greater freedom-- a cautious strategy not all of their colleagues admire.

"What's the sense of being in Congress to duck issues of war and peace?" Republican Congressman Peter King, who openly backed President Obama's military strike, told The Cable. "Nothing to me is more important than foreign policy issues that affect life and death. No one builds a legacy on how they voted for a highway bill."

...On the Democratic side, Rep. Alan Grayson, an early opponent of the strike, told The Cable that administration officials actively worked to silence anti-war Democrats.

"I'll tell you, I've had classified briefings with members who hadn't publicly committed but were vehemently opposed to the strike," he said. "The administration asked those members to remain publicly uncommitted and told them that doing that might assist in the United States' efforts in the region. Some of those members decided to honor that request."

The surprisingly quiet voting blocs in the Democratic Party included the reliably anti-war Congressional Black Caucus and the Congressional Progressive Caucus. Within those caucuses, war-weary lawmakers such as Rep. Jim Clyburn and Rep. G.K. Butterfield remained undecided on the Syria strike. For Republicans, the once-reliable contingent of neoconservative such as Rep. Buck McKeon and Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen refused to fall predictably in line with the strike.

For those who played it safe, the strategy paid dividends.

"The easiest thing to do was to keep your powder dry until you absolutely had to make a decision," a  Democratic  aide told The Cable, "And now those who did were rewarded by their patience."

Neither side seems to want a recorded vote on a hugely unpopular war becomes a key issue in the midterm election debate. For once, the American people won and the political elites lost.