The Sleepless Senate

Well, we do know that a sleep deprived Senate will accomplish no less then what they accomplish while awake:

The Senate this week will pull its first all-night debate on the Iraq war in advance of a vote on whether to bring home all combat troops by next spring, Democrats said Monday.

The rare, round-the-clock session Tuesday night through Wednesday morning is intended to bait Republicans into an exhaustive debate on the politically unpopular war, as well as punish GOP members for routinely blocking anti-war legislation.

Think Kerry will show up in his bunny jammies?

This bit of showmanship is being sponsored by none other then the worthless Harry Reid:

Speaking on the Senate floor, Reid said Iraq is the most important issue facing the United States and attempts to block legislation calling for troops to be withdrawn from Iraq will be met with a hardball response.

"We’re going to work on this amendment until we get an up or down vote on it," he said.

Senate Republican leaders, alerted to Reid’s plans on Monday, said they have the votes to keep the president’s surge policy in place, at least for now, and called Reid’s up-all-night gambit a stunt that wouldn’t change any minds.

Just another in a long line of Reid miscalculations in thinking this stunt will cause Republicans to all of a sudden switch their vote.  I mean come on!  Can anyone really be this stupid?

"The much-discussed Republican revolt has yet to materialize," a senior GOP aide said.

And it won’t.  Except for the few RINO’s, most of whom I am ashamed to even call a Republican, the majority on the right understand that to cut and run from Iraq now would be a disaster.  A disaster for Iraq, the Iraqi people, our security, and for our world prestige.  Imagine if the world is given one more example of our cowardice in the face of a tough fight.

But Reid continues to put on publicity stunt after publicity stunt instead of actually accomplishing something with the little itty bitty tiny majority they have.  Is it any wonder their approval rating is lower then Bush’s?

UPDATE

Well, whadda ya know.  This article appears to say that the Warner legislation is ordering Bush HOW to run the war:

"Given continuing high levels of violence in Iraq and few manifestations of political compromise among Iraq’s factions, the optimal outcome in Iraq of a unified, pluralist, democratic government that is able to police itself, protect its borders, and achieve economic development is not likely to be achieved in the near future," the Warner-Lugar proposal said….

The Warner-Lugar proposal states that "American military and diplomatic strategy in Iraq must adjust to the reality that sectarian factionalism is not likely to abate anytime soon and probably cannot be controlled from the top."

Accordingly, Warner and Lugar say Bush must draft a plan for U.S. troops that would keep them from "policing the civil strife or sectarian violence in Iraq" and focus them instead on protecting Iraq’s borders, targeting terrorists and defending U.S. assets.

Couple points.  They know sectarian violence will "probably" not stop after just a few weeks of the surge?  Puhlease.

Second, how in the world is it constitutional for the Congress to tell a President how to conduct a war they authorized?  I’m thinking it’s not.

UPDATE II

Very interesting factoid from David Freddoso at The Corner:

Right now, there are only 50 working Democratic Senators (Tim Johnson D, S.D. hasn’t cast a vote yet this year), and there are only 49 if you don’t include Joe Lieberman (who I hear isn’t really up for this sleepover, whether you want to count him as a Dem or not).

You need 51 senators for a quorum, in the event that someone makes a quorum call — which any senator can make at any time. So all it takes is one Republican to stay in the chamber, object to anything the Democrats try to do, and then note the absence of a quorum. When the quorum is called, and only 50 senators are present, the Senate adjourns (or at least it can’t come out of the quorum call without unanimous consent), and the whole stupid stunt is over before Senator Byrd can even begin his outraged four-hour speech.

Curt

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