As dawn broke over the white dome of the US Capitol, bleary-eyed senators were still talking ... and talking Wednesday, after plowing through the night in a rare all-night session on Iraq.
Democrats forced the sleepless night, in a bid to highlight Republican blocking tactics against their bid to force President George W. Bush to bring most combat troops home from Iraq by the end of April.
With fold-down beds at the ready in a room near the Senate, and hot coffee on tap, relays of senators kept the debate going in a near-deserted chamber through the small hours.
But, despite fraying Republican backing for Bush's war strategy, Democratic leaders looked set to fall short later Wednesday of the 60-vote supermajority needed in the 100-seat chamber to take the withdrawal bill to a final vote.
Democratic Senator and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton took her turn on the Senate floor at 4:02 am, while Republican rival Senator John McCain popped up several times through the night.
"Many of us have been searching for the best approach to take with respect to our involvement in Iraq for a number of years," said Clinton, who voted to authorize the war in 2002 but has now turned against it.
"But we don't do it with any sense that we know everything that will happen no matter what decisions are taken. But what we do have is a history of miscalculations and mistakes that we are now attempting to deal with."
Just before 6:00 am, defeated 2004 Democratic nominee John Kerry was holding forth, and in possibly one of the least-noticed debuts ever, Republican Senator John Barrasso clocked in for his maiden Senate speech at 5:06 am.
Democratic Senate Majority leader Harry Reid told his colleagues "America is awake."
People "understand, very clearly, that we have a situation where we have a president who will be in office only another 17 months and they want the war to end before he leaves office," Reid said.
But the top Republican Mitch McConnell said the all-night debate had been a diversion from the Senate's job of funding the US military.
"Our Democratic friends thought they were going to teach Republicans a lesson today on how to proceed in Iraq," McConnell said.
"Instead, Americans got an object lesson on why Democrats have failed to accomplish any of their goals over the last seven months."
Bush has warned he will make no decisions on any change in strategy in Iraq until US commander General David Petraeus returns to Washington in September to report on the current plan to surge an extra 30,000 troops into the country.
Democrats say only the threat of withdrawal will force Iraq's government to embrace political reconciliation, after it was shown to have made meager progress by a new US report last week.
"It is that open-ended commitment that must end if we are going to prod the Iraqi people to finally step up, stare into the abyss and answer the question -- do they want a civil war or do they want a nation?" said Democratic Senator Carl Levin on Tuesday.
Republican Senator Chuck Hagel, who has chastised the administration over its war strategy, rejected White House claims the surge strategy was working.
"By any measure, the situation in Iraq is getting worse with each week that passes," Hagel said.
Bush's backers said withdrawal would leave Iraq as a haven for Al-Qaeda and embolden US foe Iran.
