Democrats steered the Senate into an attention-grabbing, all-night Senate session Tuesday to dramatize opposition to the Iraq war but conceded they were unlikely to gain the votes needed to advance troop withdrawal legislation blocked by Republicans."Our enemies aren't threatened by talk-a-thons, and our troops deserve better than publicity stunts," said Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader.
Avoiding mention of the reason for the all-nighter: Republican filibuster to avoid voting on withdrawal, fearing passage.
Josh Marshall laments the fact that no major media outlet will call the filibuster for what it is.
And I was wondering how many of them would actually stay awake.
Turns out, they needn't have worried.
Reid changed his mind about how many [Senators had to be present], and when. He had originally planned holding [a live quorum call] around 3 a.m. and another at 7 a.m. But that changed during the midnight vote when Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., made the case against senatorial sleep deprivation and implored Reid to push the quorum call back.
You mean torture?
Reid, who had his very own cot waiting for him in a quiet parlor off his office, agreed.
With the onset of dawn, the senators continued to speak. Reid set a vote later in the morning on whether to advance legislation to withdraw troops from Iraq.
A few hours earlier, most senators hit the hay.
Meanwhile, people are dying by the scores.
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.
Update 9:20 AM Either the action stopped just after mid-night, or that's when the "live blogger" from Think Progress fell asleep.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Comments are moderated. There may be some delay before your comment is published. It all depends on how much time M has in the day. But please comment!