NPR: Dems and GOP Prepare for All-Night Debate

Dems and GOP Prepare for All-Night Debate

Get ready for an all-nighter up on Capitol Hill. All Things Considered reports that Senate Democrats plan to keep everybody around to have a marathon session about the war in Iraq.

I remember doing this kind of thing in college. Not trying to end a war, of course, but staying up all night trying to get some major paper done at the last second or studying for a ginormously important test. With lots of coffee, greasy fast food and maybe some beer.

Democratic leaders say their decision to keep senators up all night "is intended to bait Republicans into an exhaustive debate on the politically unpopular war, as well as punish Republicans for routinely blocking anti-war legislation," The Associated Press reports. Republicans have called it "political theater" that won't accomplish anything.

One night? One night is punishment? They get to stay up late and hang out with their homies, and that's punishment? And get this: Reuters reports "pillows, snacks and toothbrushes were also brought in."

Snacks? This is not punishment. This is a pajama party.

The bottom line is this: In all likelihood, little will have changed by the time the sun rises Wednesday because the GOP still has the votes to block whatever the Democrats want to do.

Now, if you do this every night for a week, then you might get a few people to start changing their votes. Then you'll be talking punishment.

4:42 PM ET | 07-17-2007 | permalink

Comments (Send a comment)

Why do you not talk about the issue of Republicans' filibustering every vote, i.e. requiring 60 votes to pass??! Nowhere here do I see mention of the "f" word! Tell the public that they are doing exactly what they refused to allow the Democrats to do re. Supreme Court nominees. PLease!

Sent by N. Suter | 6:55 PM ET | 07-17-2007

Yes, it is about time the issue of Republicans' be brought up. They are the ones responsible for the Iraq war, the Republicans are the ones responsible for the corruption in Iraq, the Republicans are responsible for the United States becoming a nation supporting torture and the Republicans are responsible for the denial of habeas corpus.

It is time for the Republicans to be held responsible.

Sent by J. B. Donuts | 9:05 PM ET | 07-17-2007

Oh, the senators have stayed up late. Such sacrifice and dedication!

I wonder what the troops on patrol in Iraq must think. Surely they know what it is like to go without sleep.

And what about the Iraqis, remember them?

For the Iraqis, the notion of posturing American law makers rolling out folding beds, staying up late or getting up early so that they can debate or filibuster or just blah-blah-blah about a war on the other side of the world in someone else's country must be just another one in a series of countless cruel episodes and painful asterisks in what for them is the parallel universe to the American Dream: the Iraqi Nightmare.

How tired, how weary, how utterly shattered the Iraqi people must be as they wait and wonder when their waking nightmare will finally come to an end.

Sent by Jon Letman | 8:06 AM ET | 07-18-2007

Thank goodness the republicans are resposible, someone has to be an adult.
I guess NPR has not heard about the #1 man Al Qaeda Leader in Iraqi being arrested.

Sent by T. Miller | 9:12 AM ET | 07-18-2007

What's really been forgotten is that a fillibuster is a Senate proceedure put in place so that issues of great conscience could be debated and discussed at length. The 60 votes was supposed to guarantee everyone would have a chance to speak their minds. If an issue was close then a few Senators who really had a lot to say could hold up the vote. I don't really see that as a bad thing. It is theatrical, but in other countries this kind of thing is solved with a military coup.

However, the fillibuster and votes on cloture have become so routine that it is the threat that is never challenged. They vote to continue debate - and then they don't debate! If every failed cloture vote actually resulted in a fillibuster, as was intended, then they would probably be used more sparingly.

Sent by Corey Anderson | 11:04 AM ET | 07-19-2007

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