On the Senate floor a few moments ago, Sen. Harry Reid challenged the Republicans to decide: are they going to continue to protect the president, or are they going to protect the troops?

Reid is making the very generous offer that Cornyn's "side-by-side" legislation, the GOP "version" of Levin/Reid be offered an up or down vote, as long as Levin/Reed also get that simple majority vote. To do this, he just announced on the Senate floor that he's invoking cloture on the Reed-Levin troop redeployment bill and, if the Republicans filibuster it tomorrow, he's going to force the Senate into an all-night session -- with cots brought in and everything -- to make them stand up in public for their beliefs. Unless they agree to a simple-majority vote on Reed-Levin, the Senate stays in ongoing session.

Bob Geiger has the details:

In making this move (based on my understanding of Senate rules), Reid is invoking the provisions of Rule 22 (Precedence of Motions) of the Standing Rules of the Senate, which provides, at the Majority Leader's discretion, up to 30 hours of debate if a filibuster is initiated -- as the Republicans will most certainly do, knowing that Reed-Levin may very well have the 51 votes needed for passage. Sixty votes are needed to achieve cloture (end debate) and move legislation to a full, deciding vote. Reid will be using the provision of Rule 22 that allows for up to 30 hours of continuous debate once it's made clear -- in this case, by Republicans trying to avoid an up-or-down vote on Reed-Levin -- that there is a desire to continue debating the issue. In other words, the Majority Leader is saying "You want to debate? We'll stay all night and debate."

Senate Democrats are prepared to speak all night and to force Republicans to stay in the chamber by invoking ongoing quorum calls. This is theatrics, yes, but it's theatrics to bring to light the ongoing efforts by the Republicans to block any and all efforts to force a change of policy in Iraq.