In case you haven’t been paying attention — and I don’t blame you if you haven’t — the Senate is having an all-night session tonight. The all-nighter is due to Republican/Lieberman objection to the Reid/Levin amendment to the Iraq funding bill, an amendment that would require the gradual withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, beginnning in four months. This is a change in policy supported by over 70% of the American public, and nearly 70% of the soldiers in Iraq. The Republicans have been threatening to filibuster this amendment, refusing to allow it to come to an honest vote. Usually a filibuster is an empty but effective threat, since no one really wants to stay up all night listening to the other side blather on and on. Instead everyone goes home at a reasonable hour and perhaps the majority will try again the following day to bring the issue to a vote. But not this time. The Democratic leadership in the Senate has decided to keep the Senate in session all night, forcing the Republicans to back up their threat of a filibuster. You can watch the action all night long if you want to on C-SPAN.
Or you can save yourself the frustration. Right now Lieberman is blathering on in his ever-present Droopy Dog dialect. It is truly maddening how out of touch this man is, how much he has sold out to the war-profiteers. He just said, “We must do what is right for our country, even if it is unpopular.” This is a bullshit line often spun by President Bush as well. Here’s what they’re really saying: “We must do what I believe is right for our country, even if it is undemocratic.”