The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee on Sunday excoriated the White House for its push for congressional authorization for a strike on Syria, calling it ineffective and likely to go down to defeat. 
 
 "I think it's an uphill slog from here," said Michigan Rep. Mike Rogers, one of the few Republicans to come out in favor of a strike. 
 
 The White House, he added, doesn't "have strong relationships in Congress today" and has "done an awful job" of explaining why an assault is needed. 
 
 (VIDEO: Sunday shows in 90 seconds) 
 
 "It's a confusing mess," Rogers said. 
 
 Rogers also criticized Obama for not calling Congress back from its recess in order to deliberate. 
 
 "The way he did it was mystifying," Rogers said. "He announced it and then left the country for a week." 
 
 Read more about: Barack Obama, Foreign Policy, Mike Rogers, Syria ||||| Rep. Peter King, the former chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, upbraided President Barack Obama on Sunday for his handling of the Syrian crisis. 
 
 “I just wish the president had laid this out better. I wish he’d quit backing away from his own red line.. And I wish he was more of a commander in chief than a community organizer,” the New York Republican said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” 
 
 King said that he was in favor of strikes on Syria “in spite of the president’s conduct.” 
 
 (VIDEO: Sunday shows in 90 seconds) 
 
 Obama’s handling of the crisis, King said, was not befitting a leader. 
 
 “Here’s a person who is vacillating,” the congressman said. “I can’t imagine Harry Truman or John Kennedy or Ronald Reagan or Dwight Eisenhower ever putting the nation in a position like this on a military policy.” 
 
 “He’s commander in chief. For one year, he said this red line was there. Then the red line was crossed, and he sends [Secretary of State John] Kerry and [Defense Secretary Chuck] Hagel out," King said. "We’re all set to basically have an attack. We’re told that Congress is not needed. At the 11th hour he brings in Congress. And then he says it’s not his red line.” 
 
 Read more about: Barack Obama, Peter King, Syria ||||| Republican strategist Karl Rove said Sunday the rollout of the Obama administration’s Syria war plans has been an “unmitigated disaster.” 
 
 By allowing Congress to weigh in on the military strikes at the 11th hour, Rove said that President Barack Obama had allowed the support and energy behind the strikes to disappear. 
 
 “This is an unmitigated disaster. It’s amateur hour at the White House,” Rove said on “Fox News Sunday.” 
 
 (VIDEO: Sunday shows in 90 seconds) 
 
 Obama badly miscalculated by allowing Congress to weigh in, Rove said, though he acknowledged he had previously given Obama the same advice. 
 
 "I support the president’s action,” Rove said. “I thought that he needed to take it to Congress but, in retrospect, that was a mistake.” 
 
 “He got right up to the edge, and then on Friday, he has a 45-minute walk and pulls back and heads off to the G-20,” Rove said. “The energy behind it dissipated. The president probably should have been better to take an action. 
 
 (VIDEO: McDonough makes Sunday show rounds) 
 
 “We now have the Syrians with God knows how many days or weeks – if the United States does take action – to disperse all of these units.” 
 
 Read more about: Karl Rove, Syria ||||| Sen. Rand Paul said Sunday he was horrified by images of the chemical weapons attacks in Syria but was not convinced that President Barack Obama’s plan for a surgical military strike would accomplish anything. 
 
 “When I see the horror of the attacks, my first impulse that is whoever would order that deserves death,” the Kentucky Republican said on “Fox News Sunday.” “Someone who is a war criminal who would execute citizens and kill innocent people with any kind of weapon deserves death.” 
 
 But, Paul said, the Obama administration’s policy “is not to target [Syrian President Bashar] Assad, not to target regime change and to really be so surgical and so specific that it doesn’t affect the outcome of the war.” 
 
 Paul said that the strikes wouldn’t punish Assad and may even further destabilize the country or increase the odds that chemical weapons end up in the hand of opposition forces. 
 
 “I don’t think we’re going to do anything to Assad,” Paul said. 
 
 Read more about: Rand Paul, Syria, Chemical Weapons
– It was all Syria, all the time on the Sunday talk circuit today, with White House chief of staff Denis McDonough hitting all five networks in making the administration's case for action. "The question is very simple for Congress this week... Not a single (member of Congress) rebuts the intelligence," McDonough said, according to Politico. "So, the question for them is, should (Assad) be held to account for carrying out this activity?" The United States' answer, he said, "will be followed in Tehran, will be followed in Damascus, will be followed by Hezbollah." Republicans, meanwhile, picked apart the White House, with Karl Rove calling its push "amateur hour at the White House" and arguing that Obama's decision to consult Congress on the strike has taken all the momentum out of the plan. He clarifies that he originally “thought that (Obama) needed to take it to Congress but, in retrospect, that was a mistake." Elsewhere on the Sunday debate over action in Syria, as per Politico: Rep. Mike Rogers: "I think it's an uphill slog from here. It's a confusing mess," and the White House has "done an awful job" in making its case. Sen. Rand Paul: “When I see the horror of the attacks, my first impulse that is whoever would order that deserves death. Someone who is a war criminal who would execute citizens and kill innocent people with any kind of weapon deserves death." But, "I don’t think we’re going to do anything to Assad." Sen. Tom Udall: "I’m very disappointed that the administration has given up on the United Nations and rallying the world. We haven't exhausted all of our political, economic and diplomatic alternatives. We ought to be rallying the world. Because all the world agrees, you shouldn’t use chemical weapons." Rep. Pete King: “I just wish the president had laid this out better. I wish he’d quit backing away from his own red line. And I wish he was more of a commander in chief than a community organizer. I can’t imagine Harry Truman or John Kennedy or Ronald Reagan or Dwight Eisenhower ever putting the nation in a position like this on a military policy." Sen. Ted Cruz: “This attack is not based on defending US national security. It’s not based on defending Americans or our allies. Rather, it is explicitly framed by President Obama, by Secretary Kerry, as a defense of what they call international norms. I don’t think that’s the job of our military, to be defending amorphous international norms."