Slumber Party in the Senate?

Workmen set up sleeping cots in a room off the Senate Chamber on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, July 17, 2007, as the Senate prepared for an all night session to debate the war in Iraq. (AP Photo/Dennis Cook) (Dennis Cook - AP)

WASHINGTON -- So much for forcing Republicans to filibuster all night.

As the clock struck midnight and Tuesday became Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid loosened up a bit on his plans to teach members of the minority that Democrats set the schedule on the debate over Iraq.

Reid made his point with a 41-37 vote to instruct the Senate Sergeant-at-arms to request absent senators to attend Senate proceedings he had promised through the night. More to the point, nobody wanted to be the next Bob Packwood, the Oregon Republican carried feet-first into the chamber under a similar directive in 1988.

Turns out Reid had no intention of enforcing that motion, what with the assortment of senators over 80 who could not be expected to show up through the night for live quorum calls.

Speaking of those mandatory attendance tallies, Reid changed his mind about how many, and when. He had originally planned holding one around 3 a.m. and another at 7 a.m. But that changed during the midnight vote when Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., made the case against senatorial sleep deprivation and implored Reid to push the quorum call back.

Reid, who had his very own cot waiting for him in a quiet parlor off his office, agreed. Next live quorum call, he announced: 5 a.m. With a few cases of bed-head among them, senators rolled in and again passed the same motion to instruct. This time the motion passed 37-23, with dawn beginning to break by the time the tally was completed.

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, rubbed his eyes. With the onset of dawn, the senators continued to speak. Reid set a vote later in the morning on whether to advance legislation to withdraw troops from Iraq.

A few hours earlier, most senators hit the hay.

Two rows of cots turned one of the Capitol's most ornate chambers into a dorm room. It could not be confirmed how many senators bunked there, but one male was spotted snoozing there just before the midnight vote. A Senate aide who demanded anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information said two more men slumbered there around 2:25 a.m. Members with more seniority also had the option of dozing in their hideaway offices tucked into the Capitol's assorted corners and hallways.

Still others hightailed it to their nearby homes for a few hours of shuteye.

Debate over the legislation continued through the wee hours, with a half-dozen spectators watching from the gallery. Republican presidential candidate John McCain of Arizona finished his speech around 4:10 a.m. He was followed by White House hopeful Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y.

Off the floor, there was still more back-and-forth _ over short memories, mostly.