Other Democrats are getting the squeeze to fall into line. Representative Jim Moran of Virginia, a Democrat known for his bullying behavior and loyalty to the Democratic House leadership, scolded Representative Charles Rangel of New York over his opposition to intervention in Syria on MSNBC on Tuesday night. Moran said that, because “we have the world’s largest military,” the U.S. has a responsibility to “do the right thing” and intervene. He bluntly told Rangel, a Korean War veteran, that “not only is your position wrong, but you’re going to cripple our president for the next 40 months.”

Rangel is unlikely to budge, but other Democrats who have been skeptical of previous interventions look to be moving Obama’s way. Al Hunt, a Bloomberg News columnist with excellent sources on Capitol Hill, reports that he sees a “congressional coalition of the political willing” reluctantly forming. Key to it are the nine Democratic senators still serving who voted against George W. Bush’s request for authorizing war in Iraq in 2002. Hunt says, “The White House is close to winning the support of all those members,” including Dick Durbin, the Senate majority whip, Armed Services chairman Carl Levin, and California’s Barbara Boxer. He also notes that the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which is influential with many members who have large Jewish constituencies, “has publicly backed the measure and privately is turning up the heat.”

The White House has other inducements for members who are still resistant. “I think the White House candy store is open,”said John Bolton, a former U.N. ambassador under President Bush who opposes a military strike against Syria, on Fox News Tuesday. “What do you need for your district or state? A post office? A new military facility? What do you want? I think anything you want you’re going to get because the White House is going to do whatever it takes to get a majority.”