Democrats Set For An All-Nighter on Iraq "Filibuster"
Goal is to garner 60 votes for timetable to withdraw combat troops from Iraq.
July 16, 2007— -- Senators will apparently pull an all-nighter Tuesday when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid keeps them in session to consider forcing an Iraq troop withdrawal on President Bush.
Democrats want to vote on their binding amendment to place a timetable on withdrawing combat troops from Iraq. And Republican leaders don't want to let them. The Republicans, as is their right, are insisting the amendment get 60 votes to pass a procedural motion to limit debate -- that cloture vote will likely come after the all-nighter, some time Wednesday.
"If the Republicans are going to play this procedural games of Bush and McConnell, then they're going to have to live with the fact that the American people are going to be watching this all night."
Because they won't consent to an up or down vote, Democrats say the Republicans are filibustering. (The important thing to remember in the Senate is that the filibuster is, for the most part, a thing of the past. It's not Jimmy Stewart reading off letters and ma's recipe to literally keep the place from functioning. Nowadays, Senators respect each other's right to filibuster and move on.)
Reid said he is going to keep everyone in all Tuesday night to teach them a lesson.
"We've talked a lot about filibusters but, you know, people have gotten pretty lazy about filibusters around here," Reid said at a press conference on Capitol Hill Monday.
"They just say, 'OK, you're going to filibuster. OK, we'll back off then.' That isn't the way it's going to be on Iraq, the most important issue facing the American people."
While Reid's homage to the filibuster could make for good late-nite television, it probably will not change the outcome of anything. When the Senate votes on cloture for the withdrawal amendment on Wednesday, no matter how long Senators stay Tuesday night, it is unlikely to reach the 60 vote threshold. In that regard, Reid's gesture is as much theater as "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington."
Despite a number of high-profile rhetorical defections from the White House among Republicans, most will probably not support the proposal, offered as an amendment to the annual Defense policy bill, to withdraw all combat troops out of Iraq by April of 2008 and transition those remaining troops protect to train Iraqi troops, perform counterterror operations and help patrol Iraq's borders.
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