Inside Politics: NLRB member accused of leaks resigns

A member of the National Labor Relations Board accused of leaking inside information has resigned.

The board says Republican Terence Flynn submitted his resignation Saturday. He had been under pressure to leave since March, when the board’s inspector general said Mr. Flynn committed ethics violations by improperly revealing confidential details on the status of pending cases.

Mr. Flynn shared the information with two former board members, including a one-time labor adviser to presidential hopeful Mitt Romney’s campaign. That adviser, Peter Schaumber, left the Romney campaign in December, around the time the investigation into Mr. Flynn began.

Mr. Flynn had denied any wrongdoing, but the inspector general issued a second report earlier this month finding even more improper disclosures. The allegations have been referred to the Justice Department.

SENATE

McCain: Don’t count on Russia to force out Assad

Sen. John McCain says the U.S. shouldn’t count on Russia to force out Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and he blames President Obama for a “feckless foreign policy” that hasn’t contained the bloodshed.

It was a particularly sharp rebuke even for Mr. McCain, who as a longtime critic of Mr. Obama’s war strategy hasn’t pulled many punches.

The top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee told “Fox News Sunday” that the U.S. shouldn’t pin its hopes on Russia intervening in Syria. He said Mr. Obama is showing he “wants to kick the can down the road” until after the election.

The Syrian government on Sunday denied responsibility for killing more than 90 people, including 32 children. The White House condemned the attack as a “vile testament to an illegitimate regime.”

NEW YORK

Biden says end to wars gives U.S. new flexibility

WEST POINT — Vice President Joseph R. Biden said Saturday that the United States can now focus on new global challenges after a long decade of war in an election-year commencement address to jubilant graduates of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

“Winding down these longs wars has enabled us to replace and rebalance and replace our foreign policy,” Mr. Biden told the Army cadets and their families at the storied academy’s football stadium.

Mr. Biden’s speech echoed some of the themes of military success struck by President Obama in his commencement address at the U.S. Air Force Academy last Wednesday. Mr. Biden, like Mr. Obama, said U.S. combat troops have returned home from Iraq, the conflict in Afghanistan is winding down and American commandos killed al Qaeda terrorist leader Osama bin Laden in May 2011.

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