The All Night Party in the Senate! - Vol. 3 Issue 82

One thing you learn growing up in suburban New Jersey is: HOW TO PARTY ALL NIGHT LONG! Further, Jerseyites expect their representatives in Congress to be professional party animals. So, Harry Reid’s special invitation only party, promises to be a truly swell time. I certainly hope the state’s senior Senator, 83 year old Frank Lautenberg, is ready to rock and roll all night long with that other well-known party animal, Senator Robert Byrd (90 in November).

Now on one level, Majority Leader Harry Reid’s ploy to dramatize the Democrats desire to end the Iraq War is understandable. The American people favor withdrawal from Bush’s Folly by a 3 to 1 margin. Accordingly, a slim Democratic Senate majority wants to respond to what they (correctly) believe is “the-will-of-the-people.” The Republican Senate leadership, as is their right under Senate rules, will not allow a straight “up or down” majority vote on a timeline for withdrawing troops from Iraq. The dramatic effort by Senator Reid to force the recalcitrant Republicans to go on record AGAINST ending the War is obviously political theater. There is a potential problem here for the Senate Democrats. Anytime you make a dramatic presentation you can’t control how the audience will react. Sometimes the audience loves it and sometimes they don’t. Reid is betting the opinion/spin battle will be easily won by the anti-war contingent. But the media and the voters may see it differently. There is a chance that the demagogues of talk radio and the paid flacks of the Republican Party may be able to sway public opinion. Stay tuned; I hear Byrd and Lautenberg get REALLY CRAZY in the midnight hour!

Missing Wilson Pickett, I remain

Savant

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