It's really hard to blog from the Capitol. It's not just that there's no wifi; getting into the Senate gallery means you can't bring electronics, liquids, or cameras of any kind. No cell phones, no computers, no nothing. And the woman who seated me in the gallery was incredibly mean and bossy, frequently hissing at the various audience members if they stood, leaned forward, spoke, or even looked like they were dozing off. Most of the people in the audience were in their 20s, which kind of surprised me, and it was really crowded. The Senate isn't built to be open to visitors, even though it is, it's very classical and angular.
The strategy for this maneuver is pretty clear; drive press coverage and force the Republicans to have to pay some sort of price for their obstructionism on Iraq. It was becoming conventional wisdom that every vote took 60 Senators to pass in the Senate instead of a filibustering being an extraordinary event. This was meant to address that problem, and we'll see how the coverage is tomorrow. I watched Colbert tonight, and it was great.
The Senate gallery itself has a sort of 19th century amphitheater quality to it, empty most of the time but with lots of Senators milling about below making obviously uncomfortable smalltalk during quorum calls. You can imagine speeches being given in there during the 1870s by Radical Republicans and 1890s by fat industrial barons, the same quasi-futile words and weird kabuki moves, with the room itself offering the spirit to viewers of 200 hundred years of somewhat grandiose and annoying history.
Prior to the actual filibuster was a rally given outside at Upper Senate Park. The great guys from VoteVets gave good speeches, and then a whole lot of Senators and Representatives came down and spoke as well. Carl Levin, Pat Murphy, Barbara Boxer, Nancy Pelosi, John Lewis and Harry Reid all talked a bit. It felt like an extra large press conference, kind of tragic, but also important. I ended up chatting with Representative George Miller for about twenty minutes, and two things stuck out. One, he's a really good guy who is working incredibly hard to fix what's wrong. And two, he's really tired. In fact, lots of our people are tired.
What was striking was the unity and humanity of our politicians. At the rally outisde, there were lots of House members showing solidarity with their Senate colleagues. Senators tried to gin up the crowd, but often it was just kind awkward. I saw Carl Levin twice this evening. The first time, he was giving a speech and tried to get everyone to start chanting a weird legislative term. The second time was in the Senate chambers, where he swept by quickly looking like a nicer and more progressive version of the Penguin from Batman. The dude walks really fast. Susan Collins looked frightened, speaking slowly as if she had a speech impediment. Code Pink was out in force at the rally, but even without their brand of disruptive behavior, there's definitely a feeling of boiling rage and impotence.
I think the press coverage will be good, though Josh Marshall is pointing out some worrying signs. We better hope it is, because Democratic leaders don't like to make these big maneuvers out of fear of the right-wing message machine. And this is not nearly enough to make a difference, but it is a start. If there's a positive feedback loop, perhaps Senate Democrats will be convinced to be bolder.
Anyway, it's off to bed. I'll probably have C-Span 2 on until I'm asleep, which should be soon.
Well I didn't get a chance to live blog anything, in case you didn't notice. 
