Reply #10: I know what's in the Senate rules.

[backscatter712]

The short version: Reid cannot actually force the GOP to go on dictionary-reading marathons on the Senate floor, because all the Repubs would have to do is have one of their Senators on the floor, saying the magic words "I suggest the absence of a quorum" over and over, force repeated quorum calls (cue the elevator music on C-SPAN), and the Democrats have to have nearly all of their Senators on the floor answering quorum calls, because if there aren't enough senators there for a quorum, the Senate automatically adjourns. Meanwhile, all the Republicans, except the one demanding quorum calls, and they can take turns doing that, can stay home and laugh.

More details here.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/02/23/the-myth-of-the-filibuste_n_169117.html

Though I do like the idea of the Majority Leader ordering the Sergeant At Arms to arrest Republicans who refuse to show up at the Senate floor, so a quorum can be established...

Reid and the rest of the Senate Dems are doing the next best thing - forcing this whole show into the spotlight, moving for repeated cloture votes, and making the Republicans get bathed in the radioactivity from the Wall Street banksters.