The Senate After Dark

Here's what I wish one of the Democratic Senators had said last week during the all-night debate about the amendment to require troops to start pulling out of Iraq in 120 days:

"This all-night debate is, as the Republicans keep saying, political theatre. Certainly, staying up for an all-night session isn't much sufferinc compared to the suffering of our troops in Iraq. But it's the worst suffering we can impose upon those Senators who are unwilling to put an end to this travesty. If we could impose a greater burden on them and ourselves for their continuing support for a failed policy, I would do it in a heartbeat. But there isn't. And though losing a single night's sleep is a pretty pathetic sacrifice compared to our troops', if we aren't even willing to do that, then what the hell good are we anyway?"

That's what I would have said, I think, had I been up there.