Corker on Syria: 'We Will Respond'

The alleged chemical attack in Syria continues to reverberate today, with members of Congress hitting the Sunday talk show rodeo to call for action—or restraint, reports Politico. Leading the charge for action was Bob Corker, the ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who said he believes chemical agents were used and "I think we will respond in a surgical way. Something that gets their attention, that causes them to understand that we are not going to put up with this kind of activity." Corker's Democrat counterpart in the House, Eliot Engel, was equally hawkish, saying, "We have to move, and we have to move quickly. Congress needs to be involved, but perhaps not initially." There were calls for caution, however: Rhode Island Democrat Jack Reed said he wants to "verify that it was directed by the Assad regime because that will allow us to build an international coalition," while Texas Republican Mike McCaul worried about public support for action, saying, “I don’t think that American people have an appetite to put troops on the ground in Syria." Elsewhere on your Sunday dial:

• Corker on whether he knows what the NSA is spying on: "No. I'm not on the Intelligence Committee, and obviously they are privy to information that I am not, but absolutely not. Look, I appreciate efforts to keep Americans secure. (But even members of Congress don't) understand fully what's happening here. I would imagine there are even members of the Intelligence Committee that don't fully understand the gamut of things that are taking place."
• John Lewis on Martin Luther King asking him to tone down his speech for 1963's March on Washington: "Dr. King said, as he read some of the text, said, ‘John, that doesn't sound like you.' I couldn't say no to Martin Luther King Jr. He was my inspiration. He was my hero.
• Ted Cruz on defunding ObamaCare: "We do not have the votes right now,” and it will take “a grass-roots tsunami” to “pass a continuing resolution that funds the federal government in its entirety, every aspect of the federal government, except Obamacare.”
• Cruz on renouncing Canadian citizenship (and 2016): “Serving as a US senator, I think it’s appropriate that I be only American." Also, "There's a lot of silliness."
• Scott Brown on 2016: "I'm going to focus on taking my message of inclusiveness and a bigger tent. Because right now, there needs to be room for everybody in our tent in order for us to be effective. So I'm going to travel around the country and see what happens."

(More Sunday morning talk shows stories.)