How Long Harry?

Nothing says dedication quite like long hours and hard toil. So, when Harry Reid demanded that the US. Senate take part in a rare, around-the-clock debate on the Iraq war on Tuesday night and into Wednesday, Senate workers took quick action and moved a number of roll-away beds inside the Capital.

"I think that the American people deserve what we're doing and that is focusing attention every minute of the day on what is going wrong in Iraq," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told reporters on Monday in unveiling the rare marathon work day.

Reid said the Senate will stay in session all night Tuesday and into Wednesday to debate war policy and a Democratic plan requiring the pull-out of all U.S. combat troops from Iraq by the end of April 2008.

Harry Reid, who is no more likely to turn his back on a publicity stunt than he is an under-the-table family enrichment project, will keep his bodies (both the failing one that God gave him and the failing one that the voters gave the Republic) upright and on center stage until he deems everyone has stopped watching (or until that cobb salad with martini chaser starts to act up.) I wonder how long this marathon session will actually last given that into Wednesday might actually mean one tick past midnight.

So, what are the cots for? How does a gaggle of old dudes snoring away under the covers in the Capitol Building actually represent "focusing attention every minute of the day on what is going wrong in Iraq" even if some other pontificating yokel is actually standing behind the podium?

The word all-nighter used to actually mean something. It seems the politicians have even screwed that up.