NATION : GOP Stages All-Nighter in House

House Republicans kept the House in session all through the night, “just like a telethon,” to talk about drugs and tough punishment for users and other proposals for combatting crime in America.

The speeches began at 7:15 p.m. Wednesday and continued until after 8 a.m. today as member after member took the lectern to address a nearly empty House chamber. But the session was broadcast over C-Span, the congressional cable channel.

Some of the members propped before them a poster with the hand-lettered words “Crime Watch” and a telephone number for Americans to call to report crimes in their cities. There was no indication how many people called or how many were watching.

Before it started, Speaker Thomas S. Foley (D-Wash.) called the session “total nonsense” and a “politically motivated activity.”