WASHINGTON — The United States Senate confirmed Todd Blanche as attorney general at 4:31 Saturday morning, capping an all-night session that patriotic Americans should recognize for what it was: the most committed, most determined, most deeply sincere display of legislating since the last time the Senate stayed up late, which was also fairly recent.

The final tally was 50-49, with Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska joining every Democrat in opposition and the legendary Mitch McConnell absent, which his staff was quick to note should be read as a statement of confidence and definitely not as anything else. The vote was gaveled down at 4:31 a.m., just before the chamber departed for a five-week recess that everyone agrees was earned by approximately nine straight hours of extremely sincere deliberation.

"When the historians write about this Congress, they will note that it did not rest until the job was done," said one senior Senate aide who asked not to be named because he was in his pajamas. "And then it rested, for five weeks, as is its constitutional right."

Democrats, of course, called the late-night vote an outrage. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer described the confirmation as enabling “pervasive, breathtaking corruption” — a phrase, observers noted, that was almost certainly composed at a normal hour by a man who has never once witnessed the Senate’s 4 a.m. glow, that soft, sacred light in which the Republic’s most important work gets done and then gets immediately packed up for the airport.

The narrow margin, far from being a sign of controversy, is proof that the system works. A 50-49 confirmation is not a rubber stamp. It is a rigorous, bipartisan-ish process that left no doubt — well, it left exactly one doubt, in the form of Collins and Murkowski, but they are known to be confused by late nights, having never once tried the Senate cafeteria’s 3 a.m. espresso machine, which is widely regarded as the finest in the Capitol.

For his part, Blanche said he was “deeply honored by the trust and confidence President Trump has placed in me” to lead the Department of Justice — a department that, thanks to the same heroic session, is now fully funded through Dec. 11, which the president’s critics have noted is not a full year, and which the president’s supporters have noted is a full year of something, which is more than most governments can say.

THE SENATE'S OVERNIGHT SCORECARD

  • Vote time: 4:31 a.m., an hour at which most Americans are asleep, which is exactly when the Republic needs its best people awake.
  • Government funded: Through Dec. 11. That is 124 days of government, achieved in one night. Efficiency.
  • Attorney general confirmed: The second since the president returned to the White House, because one was not enough.
  • Save America Act: Not passed, but the lights were on at 4 a.m., which is spiritually the same thing.
  • Recess: Five weeks. Earned. Non-negotiable. The airports await.

Some have asked why the most consequential vote of the session happened in the middle of the night. The answer is simple: because that is when it needed to happen, which is to say, before the five-week recess, which is to say, before the chartered flights, which is to say, before the beaches, which is to say, Tuesday at the latest.

At press time, the Senate’s first wave of departures had reportedly reached the tarmac, with several members spotted carrying folders containing the nation’s unfinished business, presumably to be reviewed poolside. Blanche, meanwhile, was reported to have begun his first full day as attorney general, which was scheduled for September, leaving him several weeks to prepare, rest, and, like the senators who confirmed him, recharge his batteries for the work of running the Department of Justice, one 4 a.m. at a time.