As US involvement progresses in Libya, the absence of a Congressional vote for intervention will prove to be strategically advantageous to Republicans, The Nation’s Chris Hayes argues on MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show. Members of the GOP will be able to respond to whether or not the mission is successful and not be “tethered” to any position, preventing them from looking hypocritical.

Maddow calls out several members Republicans, including Newt Gingrich, who flip-flopped on intervention once Obama decided to support military action. This uncertainty among members reveals an internal struggle among Republicans to juggle their “war reflexes” with their instinctive opposition to Democrats, as Maddow puts it.

“Congress doesn’t actually want to take a vote on this," Hayes says. "If you are John Boehner, you are much happier not having voted on the Libya intervention because six months from now, you can say more or less whatever you want and no ones going to throw that vote back in your face."

—Sara Jerving