"It's looking horrible": Tallying the House vote on Syria

Representative Mike Rogers (Mich.)
Rogers, the chairman of the Intelligence Committee, is being counted on by the GOP’s hawks to quietly whip his Republican committee members to fall in line behind a Syria resolution. The leadership also hopes that this powerful chairman can function as an emissary for Boehner and Cantor’s position, since the leadership, due to the nature of a “conscience vote,” can say only so much.

Members say Rogers has spoken during recent phone calls about the gravity of the chemical-weapons attacks and the need for stability in the region. He’s expected to host more meetings this week. But no one is ready to say he’ll be able to win a host of converts. An aide close to the committee say Rogers was more optimistic a week ago that Republicans would come his way, but now he has told his confidants that he’s not so sure. “Since this isn’t a Republican initiative or a black-and-white war, it’s been hard,” the aide says. “He thinks the president sent this to Congress then walked away without putting in the time to actually get it through.”

“The credibility gap there is huge,” Rogers said on CBS’s Face the Nation on Sunday. “They need to regroup here, think about where they want to go, and make this about America’s national security. . . . It has been a confusing mess up to this point and that, I think, has been their biggest challenge.”