Senators are tired this morning, following an all-night debate on Iraq leading to this morning's vote on the Levin-Reed amendment. A motion to invoke cloture on the amendment failed, 52-47, just moments ago.

Reporters who spent the night keeping watch had little to do but collect fun stories and pontificate on slumber parties. From those red-eyed muckrakers we learn:

-- That Senate Democrats prefer Al's Pizza, a little joint about halfway between the Capitol and RFK Stadium where the pizza is great and don't mind the grimy floors.

Cots just waiting for sleeping Senators
Credit: An aide who had to be there

-- That Senator John McCain has been watching media coverage of some of his rivals who don't always wear seatbelts. McCain pulled out of the Capitol in his Cadillac around 9pm without wearing his seatbelt and in front of a group of reporters. After driving a short distance, McCain stopped and fastened the belt.

-- That Senator Hillary Clinton's staff couldn't get her a better speaking slot than 4 a.m.

-- And that Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley cast at least one vote in a pair of sneakers, and that Louisiana's David Vitter rarely left the Republican cloakroom, venturing out only to cast votes.

Also in the news today, a candidate's best surrogate is his or her spouse. But what happens when spouses attack, or just say something they wish they could have back?

On the first count, Elizabeth Edwards lashed out at Clinton in an interview with Salon.com, saying the New York Senator needed a "rationale" for her campaign other than that she's in to win. Edwards is a very popular woman, but the only time Clinton gets more popular is when she's attacked (a lesson Rick Lazio teaches). John Edwards stood up for his wife's comments on the last day of his poverty tour. "I've been out front on a lot of those issues," he told MSNBC, "I think that's what [Elizabeth] meant." The incident reminds us that, perhaps more than any other candidate, the Edwardses are a two-in-one package, for better or worse.

On the second count, it seems Ann Romney is not satisfied with the coverage her husband is getting from the Boston Globe, which historically takes a very in-depth look at native sons running for president (see Kerry, John; Dukakis, Michael). She wants to make it worse: "Literally having the Boston Globe as the only real legitimate newspaper, and you get all of your news media and information from such a liberal paper. It's kind of challenging," she told ABC News, as Rick Klein puts it, "managing to offend both of her hometown newspapers in a single sentence."

Edwards and Michelle Obama have received the lion's share of the positive media attention focused on spouses, as both have been subjects of glowing profiles, while analysts endlessly speculate on the role Bill Clinton will play in his wife's campaign or administration. Before her husband ended his bid for president, Christie Vilsack not only got good press on her own, but the Washington whisper chamber was full of rumors of her incredible campaigning ability.

Republicans haven't been so lucky in the spousal press department. Romney has gotten some attention, but mainly through the lens of how she met her husband (and how she converted to Mormonism, according to, erm, the Boston Globe). Cindy McCain has gotten few mentions, while attention to Jeri Thompson has been almost uniformally unflattering in the mainstream media ("Is America ready for a president with a trophy wife?" asked the New York Times).

If Romney thinks the Boston press corps is bad, she would pity Judith Giuliani, who has had to deal with the New York crowd since her 2002 marriage to the Mayor. So far during the presidential campaign, she's received the most press for revealing that she, like her current husband, was on marriage number three and for strained relations with her husband's children.