Week In The News: Russia, Syria And Colorado Senate Recalls

The President hits pause on Syria.  Colorado gun control champions recalled.  A pause again for 9/11.  Our weekly news roundtable goes behind the headlines.

It’s hard to remember a week like this in American foreign policy.  A president throwing the brakes on a military strike to ask Congress for support – that doesn’t come.  A Russian diplomatic push becoming an overnight American diplomatic push.  Vladimir Putin lecturing Americans on exceptionalism .  It may all turn out great – Syria disarmed of chemical weapons, no US quagmire.  It may be a mess.  We’ve record US inequality, wild floods and a big gun control recall in Colorado, Twitter going public.  Up next On Point:  Our weekly news roundtable goes behind the headlines.
- Tom Ashbrook

David Ignatius, Washington Post columnist and author of "Bloodmoney," "Body of Lies," "A Firing Offense," and "Agents of Innocence." (@IgnatiusPost)

Kristen Welker, White House correspondent for NBC News. (@KWelkerNBC)

Jack Beatty, On Point news analyst.

BloombergNews: Twitter Seeks to Avoid Facebook's IPO Stumble — "The San Francisco-based company filed confidentially with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission through a process that will keep sales and profit data under wraps until shortly before a road show to market to investors. Twitter may be seeking to avoid the hype that led to Facebook pricing its offering at 107 times trailing 12-month earnings, more expensive than 99 percent of all companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index at the time. Facebook lost half its value following the $16 billion IPO."

Denver Post: Colorado Senate President John Morse, state Sen. Angela Giron ousted — "Democrats control the Senate, the House and the governor's office. Even with Morse and Giron leaving, Democrats retain a one-seat majority in the Senate. The National Rifle Association, which donated about $360,000 to support the recalls, hailed Morse's loss, telling The Denver Post it 'is proud to have stood with the men and women in Colorado who sent a clear message that their Second Amendment rights are not for sale.'"

Boston Globe: Proposal for Syria's chemical weapons long in making — "State Department officials quickly issued a statement that Kerry’s remark was not intended as a formal ultimatum. Kerry, they said, was merely making a “rhetorical” answer – and articulating a deal that was so outlandish that it would probably never happen. The effort by the State Department to try to walk back the impact of Kerry’s remark helped create the impression that he had committed a gaffe. But then Obama’s administration publicly embraced the idea. Even though Kerry had not made a formal proposal, his remark was consistent with the early stages of a discussion taking place within the administration, according to a senior State Department official."