Most Congressional votes follow strict party lines these days. But the resolution authorizing the president to strike at Syria for using nerve gas against its own people scrambles those polarizing propensities.

Both parties are divided, and the president can only prevail by fashioning the sort of bipartisan coalition he has tried — and largely failed — to build around other issues.Refer to the 9/21/13 print edition or the e-editon of the Picayune Item for further details of this story.