Picture That

By: Matthew Felling
Topics: In The News

(AP)

With the Senate pulling an all-nighter to discuss the Iraq war, battle lines are being drawn as to whether it was "grandstanding" or a "tactic."

But one thing it definitely was? Media savvy. As the Los Angeles Times reported:

The cots were strategically placed near the Senate chamber. Plenty of coffee was ordered. And the sergeant at arms was instructed to be prepared to retrieve absent senators early this morning.

In a carefully choreographed event, the "world's greatest deliberative body" staged a rare overnight debate devoted to the Iraq war.

And according to CBS News correspondent Allison O'Keefe, that choreography was mapped out very carefully.

Yesterday around five, she passed along this dispatch from Capitol Hill:

Members of the Capitol Building Maintenance staff rolled about 12 cots into the LBJ room on the second floor of the Capitol.

I asked one of Majority Leader Reid's staff why they would go to all the effort to bring in cots that Senators will probably not use. He responded by looking at my camera and said, "that is exactly why.. the picture."

Watching the morning news and cable channels thus far today, while the Democrats didn't get the change they were looking for, from a media perspective they did win the camera caucus, as over 1,400 stories reported on the cots.

6 Comments +

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by mattcat25 July 19, 2007 5:00 PM EDT: What is clear is the Republican Party in the Senate (And, those that are left in the House) DO NOT want to debate their occupation Iraq. What should be the national priority of our Congress is a comprehensive energy plan.

The Republicans have made our energy policy the invasion of Iraq from Saddam Hussein (an evil dictator) to occupy his oil fields but, this isn%u2019t under debate, instead we have political theatre from both sides about a war on terror, and liberty, and democracy in the Middle East.

After the all night Senate debate on Bush%u2019s War, the only thing gained is a clear picture of who wants to continue their dreadful program to filch the Iraqi oil reserve and divert Federal Treasury Funds to the private sector.; Reply to this comment


by memekiller July 19, 2007 2:58 PM EDT: Thank you, by the way, for calling a filibuster a filibuster in the headline of your news story. One of the few. Why is that?; Reply to this comment


by ronmwanga July 19, 2007 3:02 AM EDT: Of course its theater. The Democrats needed to show their base that the war con tinues not for lack of their trying ...; Reply to this comment


by gucci805 July 18, 2007 8:44 PM EDT: I CANNOT BELIEVE THIS CHILDISH ACT WILL BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY...WATCH THAT 14% GO DOWN; Reply to this comment


by memekiller July 18, 2007 7:57 PM EDT: Sure it's theater. I can't remember a time when the Democrats were in the minority when a filibuster wasn't portrayed in the news as obstructionist, and there was talk of getting rif of the filibuster altogether. Now it's "theater". What does it take to get a non-Luntz frame on a story?; Reply to this comment


by one_american July 18, 2007 5:35 PM EDT: "Media savvy"????

How "savvy" is it to pull a stupid media stunt that goes absolutly nowhere?

Does this tactic raise the historically low approval rating from the Democrat Congress (14%)?

Honestly, the stupid hair-brained nuances I hear from liberals justifying the Democrats attempts to micro-manage the war really makes me gag sometimes.; Reply to this comment

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