Update [2005-12-19 0:19:0 by susanhu]: The House is in session now. Yes, midnight. On C-Span. Duncan Hunter was just speaking about the defense bill.

Harry Reid is tearing his fellow senators a new one on C-Span2 right now. The Senate almost never works on Sunday. This is to get at ANWR, Harry is saying. “This is a dark day in our history.” (ANWR drilling likely to be in defense spending bill“)


You can expect numerous voice votes. If votes require a roll call, they’ll be held tomorrow, the C-Span voiceover announcer said.


Update [2005-12-18 20:3:11 by susanhu]: Bumblebums at Daily Kos has a good rundown on what’s transpiring in the Senate tonight:

As I understand it, the House hung an amendment to do with campaign finance “reform” on the Defense bill, like an ornament on a Christmas tree, that you can be sure has nothing to do with sound reform. The conference bills are signed off on, in good faith, by all the conferees, but the Republicans are sliding shit into important bills after the fact that could never stand on their own, and that never came up in conference. Oil drilling in Alaska has also been tied on like tin cans behind a car. Nothing new for the House, but the Senate, from what I’ve gleaned, hasn’t been victimized in the same way.


Welcome to the Republican rules. After Reid finished his rant, he requested a quorum call. The camera pulled back, and you could see Reid and Frist in the center aisle, arguing rather bitterly, Reid waving his arms and gesticulating angrily.


More fireworks are certainly in the offing. If you can stand to see our Democracy being raped before your very eyes, tune into C-Span 2. … Read more


Appearing on Fox News Sunday, Sen. Minority Leader Harry Reid called the Republican-led Congress “the most corrupt in history.” The Minneapolis Star Tribune/A.P. reported 30 minutes ago that:

Republican congressional leaders tentatively agreed to trim deficits by $42 billion and sought to unlock the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil drilling Sunday in a frenzied year-end bid to enact the core of a conservative agenda.


Medicare, the student loan program and Medicaid, which provides health care for the poor, would all be tapped for savings under the emerging five-year deficit-cutting plan.


House Republican leaders said they would call for a vote within hours, and a post-midnight session seemed likely. Passage would clear the way for a Senate vote as early as Monday.


GOP leaders hoped the ANWR drilling legislation would be close behind. But it faced a rockier course – a threatened filibuster in the Senate that can only be broken with a 60-vote majority.


Democratic critics attacked the bill’s chief advocate, Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska, for adding the oil provision to legislation providing $453 billion for the Pentagon. They also accused him of offering enticements to skeptical senators in the form of funds for hurricane relief and other programs.


“Isn’t that what the game really is here?” said Rep. David Obey, D-Wis. He said Stevens was “trying to make Gulf Coast states an offer they can’t refuse.” … Read all


And isn’t that breaking the sabbath rules, Mr. Frist?


Then there’s the Prez’s upcoming live primetime 9p, ET/6pm PT address on Iraq. We need another speech on Iraq from the Preznit — indeedy we do (snort) — but not only is Pres. Bush breaking the Sabbath, he is PRE-EMPTING “The Christmas Blessing” on CBS starting at 9pm ET. (Thankfully, Desperate Housewives is a repeat tonight. Whew.) Update [2005-12-18 20:19:14 by susanhu]: Here’s what CNN says about the speech starting shortly:

President Bush on Sunday will give his first speech from the Oval Office since March 2003, when he first announced the war in Iraq, the White House said Friday.


In what a senior administration official called “symmetry,” Sunday’s speech will also focus on Iraq. …(CNN)


Symmetry? WTF does that mean?


He has the nerve to preempt The Christmas Blessing for symmetry? Here’s what you unlucky East Coasters may miss (unless CBS runs it after the speech — how many speeches on Iraq have we already heard this week? at least 5 or 6? — and pushes local news to 11:30pm or so):

Nathan Andrews of “The Christmas Shoes” (Neil Patrick Harris) has grown up and is now a medical resident. When the young doctor loses a patient, he begins to rethink his career and moves back home with his father. Just as Nathan is settling in, his world begins to crumble when the lives of the woman he loves and an innocent young boy are in crisis. Nathan finds himself questioning God, fate and the fragility of life, all the while hoping for a Christmas miracle. (CBS’s Christmas Blessing Web page)