Rather than waiting for Friday night, when members could spend all night reading the new Harry Potter book, the U.S. Senate seems bound for an all-nighter tonight as Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., draws a Repubican filibuster on the Levin-Reed Amendment to the Defense Authorization bill requring redeployment of U.S. troops out of Iraq by next spring.

“Senators who oppose this war need to demonstrate that we will work through the night to get the 60 votes necessary for a deadline date for our troops to be disengaged from a civil war that has caused so much pain and grief for too many of our military families,” Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., said this morning. “There are always those who will demean what we are trying to do, but I fully support this effort which I hope will keep the pressure on Senators to stand up and be counted when we call the roll on the Levin-Reed amendment setting a timetable that will end this mission.”

Boxer is tentatively scheduled to speak on the floor from 7 to 8 p.m. PDT; just before that, she’ll be at a rally in Upper Senate Park hosted by Americans United for Change, VoteVets.org, MoveOn.org and Americans Against Escalation in Iraq.

UPDATE @ 2:25 P.M. TUESDAY: Just in, this comment from U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.: “Many of us have voted over and over and over again for change. Yet, this President has refused to listen. He has worn blinders. He has ignored the views of Congress and the American people. So this effort is to bring attention to the need for action. Not in eight weeks, but now. We’ve got to change course in Iraq, and begin the process of bringing our troops home.”

President Bush today noted — click here for audio and video — that it has now been 57 days since he asked Congress to pass an emergency supplemental spending bill to fund the war in Iraq.

“In a time of war it’s irresponsible for the Democratic leadership in Congress to delay for months on end while our troops in combat are waiting for the funds,” the president said, accusing Democrats of playing politics. “The bottom line is this, Congress’s failure to fund our troops on the front line also mean that some of our military families could wait longer for their loved ones to return from the front lines.”

Think Progress accurately notes that when Congress was under Republican control, it took 86 days to pass the $82 billion 2005 supplemental, and 119 days to pass the $72 billion 2006 supplemental. Also, remember that the president has vowed to veto the supplemental spending plan passed by the House and Senate because it includes a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq, something that polls show the American electorate desires.

“Democrats will send President Bush a bill that gives our troops the resources they need and a strategy in Iraq worthy of their sacrifices,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said in a response issued today. “If the president vetoes this bill he will have delayed funding for troops and kept in place his strategy for failure.”

ADDENDUM @ 3:55 P.M. TUESDAY: The president also today had this to say about the congressional delegation House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, has led to Damascus, Syria:

“We have made it clear to high-ranking officials, whether they be Republicans or Democrats*, that going to Syria sends mixed signals — signals in the region and, of course, mixed signals to President Assad. And by that, I mean, photo opportunities and/or meetings with President Assad lead the Assad government to believe they’re part of the mainstream of the international community, when, in fact, they’re a state sponsor of terror; when, in fact, they’re helping expedite — or at least not stopping the movement of foreign fighters from Syria into Iraq; when, in fact, they have done little to nothing to rein in militant Hamas and Hezbollah; and when, in fact, they destabilize the Lebanese democracy.

“There have been a lot of people who have gone to see President Assad — some Americans, but a lot of European leaders and high-ranking officials. And yet we haven’t seen action. In other words, he hasn’t responded. It’s one thing to send a message; it’s another thing to have the person receiving the message actually do something. So the position of this administration is that the best way to meet with a leader like Assad or people from Syria is in the larger context of trying to get the global community to help change his behavior. But sending delegations hasn’t worked. It’s just simply been counterproductive.

* It’s not just Pelosi. Before her delegation arrived, three GOP House members — Frank Wolf, R-Va; Robert Aderholt, R-Ala.; and Joe Pitts, R-Pa. — were in Damascus this weekend and met with Syria’s Grand Mufti Ahmad Badr Eddin Hassoun.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., say freshman U.S. Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., will deliver the official Democratic response to President Bush’s State of the Union Address on January 23.

“In a call echoed by Americans across this nation, the people of Virginia sent Senator Webb to Congress to help take our country in a new direction,” Pelosi and Reid say in a news release. “As a combat veteran, he understands personally how crucial it is to find a new direction in Iraq and begin to bring the war to a close. Senator Webb represents the sweeping demand for leaders who will put aside gridlock in Washington to deliver change at home and abroad.”

For those just joining us, Webb is a Marine Corps Vietnam vet and Reagan-era Secretary of the Navy whose son is currently serving in Iraq; his upset victory last November over Republican incumbent George Allen helped give the Democrats their razor-thin Senate majority. Listen and watch for some fireworks in this speech.

U2 frontman Bono met Thursday with House Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, and Senate Majority Leader-elect Harry Reid, D-Nev., to urge them to make AIDS and extreme poverty in Africa a priority for the 110th Congress. Apparently he didn’t like what he heard.

“I’m alarmed we could not get a commitment from the Democratic leadership to prevent the loss of $1 billion in the continuing resolution to fight AIDS, malaria and extreme poverty,” he said in a statement posted to the Web site of DATA, the organization he and others created in 2002 to rally the world to help solve Africa’s problems. “400,000 of the most vulnerable people on Earth have been taken hostage by politics.”

“I don’t know who’s to blame. Democrats are blaming Republicans, Republicans are blaming Democrats. But the million people who were expecting bed nets don’t care who’s to blame. They just know that a promise made by the United States to keep their families safe is in danger of being broken next year. It will take responsible leadership on both sides to make this right. We are going to keep fighting. This isn’t over.”