What a Surprise
So there Democrats have finally decided that if the Republicans are going to filibuster every bill, then they're actually going to have to do it physically rather than rely on procedure. They picked a bill regarding troop drawdowns in Iraq to fight over, which is a fairly good idea since the country is behind them on this.
Now this is mostly political theatre, but it is theatre of the right kind. It calls attention to the refusal of the Republicans to vote for cloture on just about anything in the hopes that the Democrats will look like a "do nothing" Congress, and the tactic was working, since few people understand that not voting for cloture is the procedural equivalent of filibustering of every bill. Bringing attention to this by forcing an actual filibuster was the right thing to do, and the Democrats should continue to do this for several more bills until the message is rock-solid in everyone's mind who is responsible for the deadlocking of Congress.
And since this all-night debate on Iraqi withdrawal could cause a boost to the Democrats and very likely hurt the Republicans supporting Bush, it didn't come as too much of a surprise that this morning comes an announcement of the capture of one of a seemingly endless supply of "top al Qaeda leaders" in Iraq. Sure, he was captured last month, but announcing it now has nothing to do with trying to dominate the news cycle with this story rather than the fact the Democrats might have grown a spine. Oh, and the fact that the capture of a "top al Qaeda in Iraq" leader was announced at the very time that the Senate is debating a withdrawal motion on Iraq is total coincidence as well.
