Pelosi Searches Caucus for Clues to Winning Syria Vote

By Heidi Przybyla and Phil Mattingly - Sep 6, 2013

Three times this week, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi sent letters to her Democratic colleagues on the matter of Syria. Her mission: gathering political intelligence, not counting votes -- yet.

It’s a deliberate, disciplined approach to a contentious vote that has become a hallmark of the San Francisco Democrat’s leadership style. Pelosi, 73, is assessing who can be persuaded and what might move them toward approving President Barack Obama’s plan for a military strike in response to the use of chemical weapons near Damascus that killed 1,400 people, including 400 children.

“She’s not going to ram this through,” said New York Representative Steve Israel. “The next several days will be about developing consensus and inviting recommendations to improve the language so that members can vote ‘yes’ or ‘no,’” said Israel, head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. On Sept. 3 alone, he called about 30 of his colleagues facing competitive re-elections or who hold strong antiwar stances.

Obama, at the end of a Group of 20 summit in Russia today, said Americans are “worried about a slippery slope” in Syria and he’ll make his case to the nation in a White House address Tuesday evening.

The deliberation over a resolution authorizing military strikes against President Bashar al-Assad’s Syria has thrust Pelosi into a familiar mission, to defy the odds and deliver a vital bloc of votes. As speaker in 2009, she managed in two years to pass the health-care law and a carbon-trading climate bill, both by votes of 219-212.

more...

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-09-06/pelosi-searches-caucus-for-clues-to-winning-syria-vote.html