Oooh, nuance!

We all know that the Republican Party is greedy (hello, Jack Abramoff!), hypocritical (hello, Jim Taggart and Mark Foley!) and power-hungry in the extreme (hello, Project for the New American Century!). But there's one thing Harry Reid knows that we don't always remember: The Republican Party is LAZY.

Right now, the Republics in the Senate are doing a sort of pro-forma filibuster of the Levin-Reed Amendment to the Defense Authorization Bill. The amendment would mandate withdrawal from Iraq, and the Republics are making sure they don't have to vote on it at all.

But Harry Reid is not going to let them get away with quietly forcing the amendment to go away. No, he is going to make them [gasp!] WORK FOR IT.

From ThinkProgress:

Harry Reid just announced on the Senate floor that if the GOP continues their obstruction of the Reed-Levin amendment mandating withdrawal, he'll hold the Senate in session through the night on Tuesday.

That would force Republicans to filibuster the Iraq measure in person, right on the Senate floor.

This move is brilliant for two reasons:

1) Harry Reid is forcing the Senate Republics to show their true colors, even if they succeed in the filibuster.

The Republics will be on record, on C-SPAN, explaining why they don't want our soldiers to come home. They will sound cruel, stupid and unresponsive to their constituents' interests. There will be nowhere to hide from their own words.

2) Harry Reid is forcing the Senate Republics to, you know, work.

The 109th Congress, with the overwhelming Republic majority, worked less than any Congress in history since 1948. The last thing they want to do is give up their comfy cocktail hours.

So thank you very much, Harry Reid. I think a veto-proof withdrawal agreement just got a little bit closer.