I suspect it was carelessness on Eagleburger's part - or at least I hope it was - because we don't need to have Syria thinking that there's no way we could do anything about them because the entire Senate is poised to impeach Bush if he made a move on them. This is not the case, but if you were a Syrian reading the US press and seeing that even a member of the former Bush gov was threatening impeachment, you might think it so.
Syria has blatantly and unashamedly given refuge to any number of Iraqi war criminals, has been permitting (and possibly even performing) Iraqi chem tests in its territory, has given "passports" to suicide bombers and, in short, is a flat out enemy. They have a choice: they can shape up and do what we tell them, or they can risk the consequences. But if they think that the consequences are going to be impossible because of US domestic politics, they're not going to bother to even pretend to shape up. That's while I feel Eagleburger should have weighed his words more carefully.