Oh, for Heaven's Sake.
They're bringing out the cots again in the Senate. These guys have offices, with BIG COMFY COUCHES, that are about a five-minute walk from the Senate floor. They have 15 minutes to get to the floor when the buzzers go off for a vote or a quorum call (though in practice the parliamentarian will hold the vote open longer if necessary). Many of them also have hideaways that are in the Capitol itself, just a few steps from the Chamber. And we are talking about ONE ALL-NIGHTER, not a nine-day filibuster. But if it makes them feel like Senators:

(FYI: Here's the last time they pulled out the cots. It was a stunt when Bill Frist did it, too.)
UPDATE: Several commenters, including Cfaller96 and Anonymous, raise the issue of filibusters. Harry Reid's idea with this all-nighter is to call attention to the fact that the Republicans are staging one against the various proposals to change course in the Iraq War. But, as Anonymous suggests, there's a better way to call attention to this filibuster: Make them actually do it--not just for one night, but until everyone is ready to drop from exhaustion and Senators have to start cancelling their fundraisers and their weekend trips. Maybe then they might really have to use those cots.
-
1
[...] UPDATE: And speaking of filibusters, maybe this is the moment to renew my campaign to make them really do it. [...]
-
2
[...] waging, and not the occasional exercises where they pull out the fainting couches cots and pretend that they are actually going to sleep on [...]
-
3
[...] Tumulty challenged Reid to call Republicans on their recurring procedural threat back in July 2007, when the Senate [...]
-
4
[...] me. (In addition to the two links above, you can read more of my earlier arguments on this subject here, and here, and [...]
-
5
[...] Joe Klein: Welcome to Let Them Filibuster Posted by Karen Tumulty Thursday, February 4, 2010 at 10:26 pm Submit a Comment • Trackback (0) Welcome, Joe. We've been here for a while. But you can now join Ed Rendell and Doris Kearns Goodwin. And, oh, yeah, ... me. It started all the way back ...here. [...]
Most Popular »
- NBC: There Was Never a Conan O'Brien
- Undercover Boss Is Phony and Manipulative. But Don't Hold That Against It.
- NH Poll: Dems Face A Thumpin'
- Gibbs Mocks Palin, Tea Party Convention
- Barack Obama: Then vs. Now
- Irony of the Day
- Paul Ryan Won't Run For Prez In 2012
- Today's Health Care Checkup - GOP Plans Under the Spotlight
- Do You Spend Less than $2,000 Annually on Internet, TV, Cell Phone Service, and Video Games?
- CO Gov Poll: Hickenlooper +4
- Asian Carp Battle: Foreign Fish Threaten Great Lakes
- Is the Bible Fact or Fiction? Archaeology's Discoveries
- Spain's Troubled Economy: Fears Over Euro Zone Outlook
- Kennewick Man, Archaeology Find: Who Discovered America?
- Al-Qaeda, Yemen, Wedding: Unlucky Name, Celebration
- Tea-Party Convention: Lessons on Palin and the Movement
- Venezuela: Chavez Protests at Ball Game Over Electricity
- Jim Frederick, Black Hearts in Iraq's Triangle of Death
- Marja: Operation Moshtarak Tests Obama's Afghan War Plan
- Why China Needs The U.S. -- And Vice Versa













RSS