Syria Vote Highlights GOP Divide

“The Congressional vote on whether to strike Syria will offer the best insight yet on which wing of the Republican Party — the party’s traditional hawks, or a growing bloc of noninterventionists — has the advantage in the fierce internal debates over foreign policy that have been taking place throughout the year,” the New York Times reports.

“Republican divisions on national security have flared over the use of drones, aid to Egypt, and the surveillance practices of the National Security Agency, and the tensions have played out publicly in battles between Senator John McCain of Arizona, a former Navy pilot and Vietnam prisoner of war, and Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, a libertarian-leaning freshman. Mr. McCain memorably called Mr. Paul and his compatriots ‘wacko birds,’ and Mr. Paul suggested that hawks like Mr. McCain were ‘moss covered.'”