memeorandum: John Kerry, just thinking out loud: I can't rule out boots on the ground if Syria implodes (Allahpundit/Hot Air)

11:20 PM ET, September 3, 2013

Top Items:

The Senate's Syria hearing: Live updates — The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is hearing testimony Tuesday about the potential use of military force in Syria. Testifying are Secretary of State John Kerry, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey.

Discussion: Mediaite, The Hill, CNN, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Pat Dollard, Patterico's Pontifications, Gizmodo, Twitchy, The Right Scoop, The Gateway Pundit, Business Insider, The Fix, msnbc.com, The Huffington Post, The Raw Story, Ed Driscoll and Gawker

Pew Research Center for the People and the Press:

Public Opinion Runs Against Syrian Airstrikes — Few See U.S. Military Action Discouraging Chemical Weapons Use — President Obama faces an uphill battle in making the case for U.S. military action in Syria. By a 48% to 29% margin, more Americans oppose than support conducting military airstrikes …

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, The Rachel Maddow Show, New York Times, McClatchy Washington Bureau, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, msnbc.com, Weasel Zippers, Hot Air, Guardian, The Dish, NPR, The Plum Line, his vorpal sword, CNN, The Daily Caller, Washington Monthly, The Other McCain and Politico

Jeremy Herb / The Hill:

Kerry: Push to strike Syria is not about Obama's ‘red line’ — The U.S. decision to take military action in Syria is not about President Obama's “red line” on the use of chemical weapons, Secretary of State John Kerry told senators Tuesday. — He said that critics who are suggesting Obama …

Discussion: The Other McCain

Politico:

Senators craft Syria compromise — A new use-of-force resolution for Syria sets a 60-day deadline, with one 30-day extension possible, for President Barack Obama to launch military strikes against the regime of Syria President Bashar Assad — and it will also bar the involvement of U.S. ground forces in Syria.

Discussion: Weasel Zippers and NPR

Manu Raju / Politico:

Marco Rubio shifts direction on Syria — For much of the last two years, Marco Rubio has been banging the drum on Syria: Demanding U.S. intervention to knock the Assad regime from power. — Now, the senator has taken a different tack: The administration has missed the boat.

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland

Bret Stephens / Wall Street Journal:

The Robert Taft Republicans Return — Isolationism has never served the interests of America, or the GOP. — 'We'll be lucky to get 80 Republicans out of 230. " That's an astute GOP congressman's best guess for how his caucus now stands on the vote to authorize military force against Syria.

Discussion: American Spectator

Byron York / Washington Examiner:

Why many Republicans won't support Obama on Syria attack — CONGRESS BARACK OBAMA REPUBLICAN PARTY SYRIA — Early signs say it will be hard for President Obama to win congressional authorization for military action in Syria. That could change; lawmakers might re-write …

Discussion: Right Turn, Politico, Washington Post, PoliticusUSA, Questions and Observations, Firedoglake, The Moderate Voice, The Week, Roll Call, New York Times, Booman Tribune, National Review, Reuters, Hot Air and The Plum Line

Nick Marcelli / Eric Cantor, House Majority Leader:
LEADER CANTOR STATEMENT ON SYRIA AND REGIONAL CONFLICT

Discussion: NBCNews, KGET-TV, Business Insider, Hot Air, CNN, Politico, JustOneMinute, Joe. My. God., The Gateway Pundit, The Hinterland Gazette and CBS News

David Horowitz / Fox News:
GOP leaders should let Allah sort out Syria's Islamic civil war

Discussion: protein wisdom

David Frum / CNN:
Four questions for backers of Syria mission

Discussion: Hot Air and BuzzFeed

Daniel Arkin / NBCNews:
EXCLUSIVE: Susan Rice says administration ‘quite confident’ Congress will OK Syria action

Discussion: The Huffington Post

Bill Burton / Reuters:
The progressive case for Syria action

Discussion: Weasel Zippers

Washington Post:
Kerry, Hagel lay out military objectives during Senate hearing on Syria strike

Discussion: Washington Times, The Fix, The Hill, PE.com Blogs, Post Politics, PostPartisan and Gothamist

Scott Clement / The Fix:
Most in U.S. oppose Syria strike, Post-ABC poll finds

Discussion: Washington Post, Washington Free Beacon, PostPartisan, Outside the Beltway and Washington's Blog

Michael O'Brien / NBCNews:
Boehner says he'll back Obama on Syria strikes

Discussion: Pat Dollard, Hot Air, Mediaite, FOX News Radio, Wonkette, msnbc.com, Taylor Marsh, Rumproast and National Review

Gary Langer / ABC News:
Six in 10 Oppose U.S.-Only Strike on Syria; A Closer Division if Allies are Involved

Discussion: Postmodern Conservative, CNN, Politico, Daily Kos and Yahoo! News

New York Times:
House Leaders Express Their Support for Syria Strike

Discussion: Politico, Outside the Beltway, PoliticusUSA, The Caucus, The Daily Beast, Business Insider, Hit & Run, Daily Kos and The Dish

Pete Kasperowicz / Hillicon Valley:
Democrat asks constituents for Syria input via email, Twitter, Facebook

Discussion: Politico, Weasel Zippers and The Hill

Maggie Haberman / Politico:

Hillary Clinton backs Obama on Syria — Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton backs President Barack Obama's move to urge Congress to back a targeted effort in Syria, in the first comments from her camp since the president unveiled his plan, POLITICO has learned.

Discussion: TalkLeft, BBC, Hot Air, Business Insider and Weasel Zippers

Margaret Sullivan / The Public Editor's Journal:

The ‘Mysterious’ Disappearance of a Quotation Has a Mundane Explanation — Was a quote about a pro-Israel group mysteriously scrubbed from a New York Times story? A number of online commenters, in blog posts and on Twitter, wrote Tuesday that a quote calling the American Israel Public Affairs Committee …

Discussion: Hot Air, Gawker, The Boston Globe, Pressing Issues, Politico, MJ Rosenberg, Israel Matzav and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, more at Mediagazer »

Greg Sargent / The Plum Line:
On Syria, Obama can't take liberals and Dems for granted

Discussion: Daniel W. Drezner, New York Times, Hot Air, Washington Monthly, Algemeiner.com, Politico, USA Today and Foreign Policy

ABC News:
Hillary Clinton Backs Obama on Limited Syria Strikes

Discussion: Politico and CNN

Jessica Testa / BuzzFeed:
Hillary Clinton Supports Obama On Taking Syria Intervention To Congress

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland and BuzzFeed

Richard Cohen / Washington Post:

Miley Cyrus, Steubenville and teen culture run amok — Miley Cyrus twerked. I had to look up the word since my indefatigable spell checker had no idea what I meant. I discovered from Wikipedia that twerking “involves a person, usually a woman, shaking her hips in an up-and-down bouncing motion …

Discussion: National Review, Gawker, ThinkProgress, Mediaite, No More Mister Nice Blog, TheBlaze.com, Daily Kos, The Raw Story, Wonkette, The Other McCain, Booman Tribune and Jezebel

Quinnipiac News + Events:

Release Detail — September 3, 2013 - De Blasio Surges Past 40% In New York City Mayoral Race, Quinnipiac University Poll Finds; Quinn, Thompson Battle For Runoff Spot - If There Is One — With 47 percent of black voters and 44 percent of women voters, New York City Public Advocate Bill de Blasio surges …

Discussion: Gothamist, PostPartisan, Yahoo! News, Post Politics, Real Clear Politics and Washington Monthly

Rosie Gray / BuzzFeed:

John Kerry Won't Rule Out Ground Troops In Syria — “All I did was raise a hypothetical question,” Kerry says. — Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey (left), Secretary of State John Kerry, and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel testify at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday.

Discussion: The Daily Caller

Allahpundit / Hot Air:
John Kerry, just thinking out loud: I can't rule out boots on the ground if Syria implodes

Discussion: BuzzFeed, BREITBART.COM, Ed Driscoll, The Other McCain and The Right Scoop

Daniel Strauss / Talking Points Memo:

Smackdown: Governors Take The Battle Over Business Public — Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) and Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon (D) are in what may be the most heated spat between one governor trying to poach companies from the other governor's state. — In the last week of August …

Discussion: Campaign For America's Future and Washington Monthly

Monica Potts / American Prospect:

What's Killing Poor White Women? — On the night of May 23, 2012, which turned out to be the last of her life, Crystal Wilson baby-sat her infant granddaughter, Kelly. It was how she would have preferred to spend every night. Crystal had joined Facebook the previous year …

Discussion: The Mahablog

Leo Kelion / BBC:

Android KitKat unveiled in Google surprise move — Nestle plans to sell more than 50 million chocolate bars featuring the Android mascot — Google is calling the next version of its mobile operating system Android KitKat. — The news comes as a surprise as the firm had previously indicated version 4.4 …

Discussion: Liberal Values, The Verge and TechCrunch

Patrick J. Lyons / New York Times:

Ronald H. Coase, a Law Professor And Leading Economist, Dies at 102 — Ronald H. Coase, whose insights about why companies work and when government regulation is unnecessary earned him a Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Science in 1991, died on Monday in Chicago. He was 102.

Discussion: Wonkblog, The Verge, The Volokh Conspiracy, News Desk, Bloomberg, The Reality-Based Community, AEIdeas and HBR.org

Paul Bedard / Washington Examiner:

Book: Clinton's State told Benghazi was a ‘terrorist attack’ minutes after it began — WASHINGTON SECRETS HILLARY CLINTON SEPTEMBER 11 TERRORIST ATTACKS BENGHAZI TERRORISM — Just minutes after 35 jihadists crashed through the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, nearly one year ago …

Discussion: Weasel Zippers, NewsBusters and Jihad Watch

Washington Post:

FULL TRANSCRIPT: Kerry, Hagel and Dempsey testify at Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Syria — So I know today's focus is going to be largely on the issue of chemical warfare. And I know that the case has to be made. And I know that each of us have had the opportunity to hear that case …

Discussion: The Heritage Foundation, PoliticusUSA and The Week

David Ferguson / The Raw Story:

Southern Baptists order their military chaplains not to perform same sex marriages — The North American Mission Board, the domestic arm of the Southern Baptist Convention's mission outreach programs, has issued guidelines ordering the religion's military chaplains not to perform, attend or participate in same sex weddings in any way.

Dan Amira / New York Magazine:

Who Do Members of Congress Follow on Twitter? — Twitter has become such an integral medium for political communication that, according to our count, 97 percent of members of Congress now have an official Twitter presence. But Twitter is a two-way street — you spread your message, and you listen to what others have to say.

Discussion: Mediaite, The Fix, Poynter and The Huffington Post

Andrew Johnson / National Review:

Pelosi Huddles with 5-Year-Old Grandson on Syria — Nancy Pelosi told reporters today she consulted her five-year-old grandson over the weekend about whether or not to support intervention in Syria. — The minority leader explained that when she was home this past weekend …

Discussion: Mediaite, Pat Dollard and Power Line