Photograph by Bryan Denton/The New York Times via Redux

Syrian rebel fighters with the Sham Falcons fighting group, one of the Islamic groups fighting with the Free Syrian Army, during a firefight with government forces in Heesh, Syria, on March 10, 2013.

Syria has crossed the ”red line,” the Obama White House says.

And the Syrian opposition will be getting more assistance from the United States — not only humanitarian aid, but also still publicly unspecified stepped up support for the military council opposing the Assad regime.

While the use of chemical weapons in Syria has been widely reported for some time, the administration said today that it was seeking “credible and corroborated information to build on that assessment and establish the facts with some degree of certainty. ”

“Following a deliberative review, our intelligence community assesses that the Assad regime has used chemical weapons, including the nerve agent sarin, on a small scale against the opposition multiple times in the last year,” National Security Council spokesman Ben Rhodes said in a statement issued by the White House this afternoon. “The intelligence community estimates that 100 to 150 people have died from detected chemical weapons attacks in Syria to date; however, casualty data is likely incomplete. While the lethality of these attacks make up only a small portion of the catastrophic loss of life in Syria, which now stands at more than 90,000 deaths, the use of chemical weapons violates international norms and crosses clear red lines that have existed within the international community for decades. ”

While the administration works to build a “credible, evidentiary case to share with the international community and the public,” Rhodes said, President Barack Obama has decided to respond with stepped up assistance to the opposition — without detailing what it is.

Some Republicans have been calling for stronger U.S. intervention for some time. “It is long past time to bring the Assad regime’s bloodshed in Syria to an end,” Brendan Buck, a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner said this afternoon. “As President Obama examines his options, it is our hope he will properly consult with Congress before taking any action.”

Obama has made it clear that the use of chemical weapons “is a red line for the United States,” Rhodes said, and that  “he use of chemical weapons would change his calculus, and it has.”

Obama has stepped up  “non-lethal assistance to the civilian opposition, and also authorized the expansion of our assistance to the Supreme Military Council,” he said, “and we will be consulting with Congress on these matters in the coming weeks.”

“These efforts will increase going forward,” said Rhodes, without specifying what sort of tactical assistance is involved. . “We are prepared for all contingencies, and we will make decisions on our own timeline,” he said. “Any future action we take will be consistent with our national interest, and must advance our objectives, which include achieving a negotiated political settlement to establish an authority that can provide basic stability and administer state institutions; protecting the rights of all Syrians; securing unconventional and advanced conventional weapons; and countering terrorist activity.”

Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona has been pressing for a no-fly zone over Syria and U.S. military assistance for the rebels.

“I applaud the president’s decision,” McCain said on the Senate floor today.

Still, the administration’s move faces a certain amount of skepticism.

Obama to arm Syrian Rebels with pocket knives confiscated by TSA agends. Also large quantities of bottled water, shampoo, conditioner.

— Grover Norquist (@GroverNorquist) June 13, 2013

Original post is Obama Boosting Syrian Aid: ‘Red Line’ Crossed by Political Capital.

Photograph by Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

Randal Milch, executive vice president and general counsel with Verizon Communications Inc., testifies during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in Washington, D.C., on March 21, 2012.

Attorney General Eric Holder may be defending more than his budget in his appearance before a Senate committee today. The revelation that the Obama administration is collecting the telephone records of millions of Verizon customers using a secret court order might come up too.

Lawmakers and college students will rally at the Capitol to urge Congress to prevent student loan rates from doubling next month.

And President Barack Obama travels to North Carolina to deliver speech on economy.

Also today, the Senate convenes for a cloture vote scheduled on the farm bill, the House meets with the Homeland Security appropriations bill on the agenda. The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee holds a hearing on IRS conference spending. And House Speaker John Boehner holds his weekly news conference.

The Atlantic Council hosts Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction Stuart Bowen for a discussion on stability and reconstruction in that country. The Heritage Foundation and the U.S. Institute of Peace hold a forum on how to sustain gains for women in Afghanistan after the 2014 withdrawal, with Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash.; Rep. Donna Edwards, D-Md.

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hears from Interior Secretary Sally Jewell on the agency’s activities. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., joins a Center for American Progress conference call briefing to preview the “National Clean Energy Summit 6.0: Energizing Tomorrow.”

The Senate Finance Committee votes on the re-nomination of Fred Hochberg to be president of the Ex-Im Bank and the “Natl Assn of Registered Agents and Brokers Reform Act of 2013.” Stanford University Economics Professor John Taylor delivers remarks on ‘Why Has the Recovery Been So Slow and Is Economic Policy To Blame?,” at a National Economists Club event.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee meets on labor conditions in Bangladesh. Acting Labor Secretary Seth Harris testifies at Senate Appropriations Committee Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies Subcommittee hearing on FY2014 budget request for Labor Dept. 124 Dirksen, The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission holds a briefing on China and the Middle East, focusing on energy security, trade and investment flows. The Senate Finance Committee hears from USTR nominee Michael Froman at his confirmation hearing.

Consumer and telecom industry representatives testify at a hearing before House Judiciary panel on Courts, IP and the Internet on H.R. 1123, a bill which would allow cell phone unlocking. Cyber hackers for China and Russia that target U.S. agencies and companies would be denied entry into the U.S. and have their bank accounts frozen under legislation to be unveiled today by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, Acting Customs and Border Protection Deputy Commissioner Kevin McAleenan, Delta Air Lines CEO Richard Anderson and JetBlue Airways Associate General Counsel Robert Land hold a news conference to announce “a new partnership to combat human trafficking.”

Also today, NFL Player Brendon Ayanbadejo and the Washington Blade hold a news conference on LGBT issues in pro sports. Choice Hotels CEO Steve Joyce and Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., attend grand opening of company headquarters in Rockville, Md. Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., speaks at Natl Archives on commemoration of 50th Anniversary of March on Washington and the 150th anniversary of Emancipation Proclamation.

And former Sen. John Glenn speaks on space travel at Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.

 With assistance from Laura Curtis, Chelsea Mes and Jim O’Connell

Original post is Washington Daybook: Can You Hear Me Now? by Political Capital.

Photograph by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton testifies before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Capitol Hill on January 23, 2013 about the security failures during the September 11 attacks against the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya, that led to the death of four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens.

Fresh evidence here that, for Republicans, Benghazi is all about Hillary:

While the former secretary of state is potentially the Democrat to beat in a 2016 presidential contest, her handling of the fatal assaults on a U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya, may already have taken a toll on her formidable popularity — which may well be the motivation behind the relentless Republican congressional drumbeat on the Obama administration’s handling of an ambassador’s slaying.

Clinton, also a former senator from New York and first lady, left the State Department with commanding numbers: 61 percent favorable ratings in a February Quinnipiac University survey. That compared with a 34 percent negative rating.

Today, Quinnipiac reports a 52 percent favorability rating for Clinton in its latest national survey — and a 40 percent negative rating.

“Her score is down substantially from her all-time high,” says Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac Polling Institute. “One reason for her drop may be that 48 percent of voters blame her either a little or a lot for the death of the American ambassador in Benghazi.”

Envoy Chris Stevens was among four Americans killed in the Sept. 11 attack by terrorists — an act of terrorism which Republicans maintain the Obama administration was slow to acknowlege. The White House’s recent release of emails following the attack show that it was not 1600 Pennsylvania so much as the CIA and State Department which were torn over the “talking points.”

Obama has called the continuing congressional focus on the episode a “circus.” House Speaker John Boehner pledges “more hearings” to come.

While losing some of her luster in the past few months, the survey also shows that Clinton holds a strong position in which to consider a possible 2016 presidential campaign. Matched against a couple of the Republican Party’s big names — Republican Jeb Bush of Florida and Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky — Clinton holds an eight percentage point advantage in a hypothetical matchup. Vice President Joe Biden, on the other hand, trails either Republican.

“Clinton remains the queen of the 2016 hill at this point, but the wide gap between her and some of the leading Republican contenders on favorability may be closing, as her overall favorability has taken a hit,” Brown says.

Original post is Hillary Clinton’s Slide: Benghazi Toll? by Political Capital.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee has started the Twitter feed @KXLFiles in recent days, according to committee spokeswoman Charlotte Baker. The first-person feed masquerades as the State Department’s environmental impact statement and offers an unequivocal, pro-Keystone position — one that the State Department itself has avoided taking while the decision is pending.

Since its first tweet on May 16, @KXLFiles has sent five tweets and retweeted House Speaker John Boehner and Rep. Adam Kinzinger, an Illinois Republican on the committee. The feed has 108 followers.

What’s 15,500 pages, tells a tale that will help create #jobs, & is in the country’s national interest? Answer: Me. #TimeToBuild #KeystoneXL

— KXLFiles (@KXLFiles) May 20, 2013

SPOILER ALERT: I don’t want to ruin a good story, but if you read me, you’ll see I’m in the country’s nat’l interest. #TimeToBuild #4Jobs.

— KXLFiles (@KXLFiles) May 20, 2013

Union workers say “it’s time to unlock the jobs” in #KeystoneXL, call the project a “lifeline” j.mp/13FSCfi

— Speaker John Boehner (@SpeakerBoehner) May 20, 2013

The House is set to vote this week on measure that would allow TransCanada Corp.’s $5.3 billion pipeline to be built without the approval of President Barack Obama. While the measure is likely to pass the Republican-led House, it faces long odds in the Senate, where Democrats are in control.

Obama turned down TransCanada’s initial bid to build the pipeline from Alberta to refineries on the Gulf of Mexico, and has been weighing its re-application since last year. While the White House and State Department have tried to downplay the importance of the pipeline, Obama’s environmental allies say his decision is a key test of whether he is serious about tackling climate change in his second term.

Original post is House Republicans Tweet For Keystone by Political Capital.

Photograph by Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

House Speaker John Boehner, a Republican from Ohio, talks prior to an interview at the Capitol in Washington, D.C., on May 7, 2013.

“We’ve had four years of slow and anemic job growth — and frankly, it’s unacceptable,” House Speaker John Boehner said today.

The Ohio Republican attempted to turn the latest unemployment rate against the White House — 7.5 percent reported for April representing the lowest rate in four years — as something short of what President Barack Obama promised with his economic stimulus.
“Slow growth cannot be the new normal,” he said today at his weekly news conference in the Capitol — as Obama traveled to Texas to tout the potential for economic growth.

“We can’t cut our way to prosperity — we need real economic growth,” Boehner said, suggesting that “real tax reform” will contribute to that. House Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp is promising a tax bill this year — though Republicans and Democrats are divided over whether that should result on added tax revenue or come out “revenue neutral.”

Obama is traveling to Texas to promote technology-based education, training and jobs as he seeks support in Congress for economic initiatives he proposed earlier this year.

Stops today around Austin, including at Manor New Tech High School and at an Applied Materials Inc. factory, as well as
meetings with students, workers and entrepreneurs, are intended to give Obama a platform to promote proposals from his State of the Union speech in February. Those include raising the minimum hourly wage to $9 and promoting spending on education, manufacturing-innovation centers, worker training and research.

   Bloomberg’s Margaret Talev, reporting from Texas today, contributed.

Original post is Boehner: Slow Growth Can’t be ‘New Normal’ by Political Capital.

Courtesy Office of the Speaker of the House

House Speaker John Boehner, a Republican from Ohio, right, shows Bloomberg Television reporter Peter Cook how to tie a necktie following an interview at the Capitol on May 7, 2013.

House Speaker John Boehner may have drawn a line in the sand on taxes, but you will almost never find him with a wrinkle in one of his ties.

The Ohio Republican is a model of sartorial splendor on Capitol Hill, known almost as much for his perfectly knotted neckwear as his perma-tan. So when we sat down for an interview this week I was surprised when he took note of my own tie.

“I have that tie,” he told me, pointing out that it was good he hadn’t worn the same neckwear as his inquisitor.

“I got it from my wife,” I responded. “Apparently she has good taste.”

I conceded that the tie probably looks better on him given his superior knot-tying know-how. Assessing my handiwork, he didn’t disagree.

“You don’t have a dimple. You’ve got to have a dimple in it,” Boehner told me.

“It’s not that hard,” he added.

With that admonishment, I asked the speaker for a lesson after our interview, and he graciously agreed. So when he was done dealing with my probing questions on the budget battle (hasn’t given up hope for a grand bargain), immigration (committed to a House vote this year) and even his own future (he “fully expects” to remain speaker past 2014), my cravat class began.

We started from scratch with the speaker stressing the tension in the knot and the placement of the left thumb. “Pull down gently” he told his impatient student.

I blamed my problems on the equipment. “I think it’s my tie.”

Boehner wasn’t buying that excuse, yet did concede, “You’ve got to train the tie.”

My ties apparently aren’t trained yet.

When the lesson was over, everyone agreed my knot looked better. Still, the real test will be what happens when the speaker isn’t there to tie one on for me.

He did promise to continue to police my neckwear from this point forward, even if he doesn’t answer all of my questions — with thanks to the speaker for the interview time, the tutorial and the fashion tips.

Original post is Boehner Knows How to Tie One On — Our Reporter’s Neckware Tutorial by Political Capital.

Photograph by Mario Tama/Getty Images

People yell during a protest for better wages for fast food workers in Harlem on April 4, 2013 in New York City.

Supporters of a minimum wage increase may have a surprising ally — small business owners.

More than two-thirds of them support increasing the federal minimum wage, according to a poll released yesterday by Small Business Majority, a non-profit advocacy group based in Sausalito, California. In fact, 85 percent of business owners say they already pay all of their workers more than the current minimum of $7.25 an hour, the poll found.

“The biggest concern for small business owners is that there be sufficient money in the economy for people to buy their goods and services,” said John Arensmeyer, chief executive officer of the Small Business Majority. “The more money the middle class has to spend, the better the economy does.”

Nineteen states and the District of Columbia already require employers to pay more than the $7.25 an hour mandated by federal law, according to the U.S. Labor Department.

President Barack Obama in February asked Congress for legislation to boost the minimum wage. Last month, Rep. George Miller of California and Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa, both Democrats, followed up with legislation to raise the wage floor to $10.10 an hour. The bill faces long odds in Congress, with opposition mostly from Republicans including House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio.

Arensmeyer, himself a one-time Silicon Valley entrepreneur, says there’s no such partisan divide among business owners. Among those polled, 46 percent identified themselves as Republican or independent-leaning Republican.

“There doesn’t appear to be this fantastically partisan set of views,” he said. “Among small business owners, increasing the minimum wage doesn’t show up on their list of top concerns.”

Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research conducted the poll in early March, surveying 500 business owners who employed 50 or fewer workers. The survey has a margin of error of  plus or minus 4.4 percent.

Original post is Minimum Wage Boost: Surprising Ally by Political Capital.

Photograph by Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call

Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-Ohio, holds his weekly on camera news conference in the Capitol on Thursday, April 11, 2013.

As the House speaker, John Boehner is in a position to raise plenty of campaign funds for his party.

The Ohio Republican took in $2.4 million in the first three months of this year, his campaign committee reported to the Federal Election Commission today.

That’s more than most candidates for Congress raise in an entire two-year campaign cycle.

Boehner raised $394,000 from political action committees of companies including American Airlines Inc., Boeing Co., Northrop Grumman Corp., Exxon Mobil Corp., Federal Express Corp., Lockheed Martin Corp. and Microsoft Corp.

Boehner’s campaign committee spent more than $1.5 million, including about $693,000 sent to the National Republican Congressional Committee, the campaign arm of House Republicans.

Boehner raised $22 million and spent $21.2 million in the 2012 election, FEC data show.

Original post is Boehner Raises $2.4 Million First Qtr by Political Capital.

Photograph by Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas and President Barack Obama shake hands during a joint press conference following meetings at the Muqata, the Palestinian Authority headquarters, in the West Bank city of Ramallah on March 21, 2013.

President Barack Obama delivers an address to the Israeli people in Jerusalem today. He met earlier with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah on the future of the peace process and said the Palestinian people “deserve a state of their own.”

Comcast CEO Brian Roberts delivers remarks on “The Future of Television” at the National Economists Club, while Dominion’s Tom Farrell, Duke Energy’s Jim Rogers and PG&E’s CEO Tony Earley discuss utility technology advances at an Edison Electric Institute event. Nucor’s John Ferriola and U.S. Steel’s John Surma appear at a House Steel Caucus briefing on trade developments.

Before lawmakers depart for a two-week Easter-Passover break, the House is
to complete action on the fiscal 2013 spending bill, thus ensuring the federal
government remains open through Sept. 30. House Speaker John Boehner will hold a press briefing.

The chamber also plans to vote on a fiscal 2014 budget blueprint that heavily relies on spending cuts and changes to Medicare to erase the deficit over 10 years. The Senate debates its competing budget vision, which proposes to bring down the deficit in coming years with tax increases on top earners and cuts to defense and domestic programs.

Speaking of the future, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has double-digit leads over either former Gov. Jeb Bush or Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., in an early look at 2016 presidential election, according to Quinnipiac University poll released today. Florida voters also support universal background checks for gun purchases 91 percent to 8 percent, the poll shows.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan and NAACP President Ben Jealous hold a conference call on “March Madness” and the need to strike a “healthier balance” between academics and athletics in college sports.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association delivers its 90-day temperature and precipitation outlook.

House Republicans and Democrats hold competing media events to mark the third anniversary of the Affordable Care Act, aka “Obamacare.”

The future of beer and the industry’s impact on the economy and job creation will be discussed at an event hosted by the Beer Institute and the National Beer Wholesalers Association at the National Press Club.

And in pehaps an ominous sign for the future of open government, Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew today attends a closed meeting with business leaders on cybersecurity, a closed meeting of the Financial Stability Oversight Board and a closed meeting with members of the Financial Services Roundtable to discuss the state of economy.

Original post is Washington Daybook: Future Tense by Political Capital.

Photograph by Win McNamee/Getty Images

President Barack Obama is escorted by Speaker of the House John Boehner while leaving the Capitol on March 19, 2013 in Washington.

President Barack Obama just can’t seem to resist cracking wise about Congress, even when the timing of his humor seems a bit off.

Back in late December, a laugh line he aimed at Capitol Hill even as tense talks neared a successful end to avoid across-the-board tax increases spurred angry reactions from Republican lawmakers.

Today, though, one of the president’s chief antagonists on Capitol Hill, House Speaker John Boehner, decided to turn the other cheek in responding to Obama’s most recent gibe – at least for the moment.

“It’s good to get away from Congress,” Obama said in an aside to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as the two greeted each other on a tarmac after Air Force One touched down for the president’s visit to Israel.

Netanyahu, no stranger to dealing with balky legislators, chuckled.

In Washington, though, Obama’s quip struck some as dissonant, given that just last week he was traveling to the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue to make nice with lawmakers — especially the Republicans with whom he has constantly battled — and signal that he’s eager to dig in and work with them.

Boehner, asked on CNN this afternoon about Obama’s joke, at first had a sarcastic rejoinder.

“So much for the charm offensive,” he told the cable network’s Jake Tapper, referring to the president’s Capitol Hill trips.

The Ohio Republican then took a gentler stance, saying: “I’d rather be heckled than ignored.”

And in a sign that maybe, just maybe, the icy relationship he’s had with Obama is thawing slightly, he added with a wry smile: “You only tease the ones you love.”

Original post is Boehner on Obama: Teasing the ‘Ones You Love’ by Political Capital.