Cots are for the birds

Someone at AP was thouroughly pissed at having to stay up all night.

Senate Republicans on Wednesday scuttled a Democratic proposal ordering troop withdrawals from Iraq in a showdown that capped an all-night debate on the war.

Workers place cots in the Senate on Tuesday for a planned all-night debate.

The 52-47 vote fell short of the 60 votes needed to cut off debate under Senate rules. It was a sound defeat for Democrats...

Emphasis added. I'm not a huge fan of majoritarian democracy, but last I checked that's the system we have here in the US. While they may have been procedurally unable to pass the ammendment, since when is getting 52% a "sound defeat". And what does that make it for the 66% of Americans who support it?

Also interesting that they note "Republicans were mostly unified in their opposition" - as opposed to Democrats who were COMPLETELY unified in their support.

The good news is CNN's earlier report actually used the word filibuster for the first time. Reid also said he's shelving Defense Approps for the time being. Like Bush himself said, Congress has the power to control money in times of war. Glad to see they aren't giving away their only piece of leverage. The next (and delicate) step will be to remind people at every turn that it isn't Reid holding up "support for our troops", it's the folks who refuse to allow an up or down vote.