Of course not, but these types of votes are taken all the time in the Senate and are not necessarily grand-standing.
It serves a purpose to get the Senators on record. That way the voters in their states can work to get a Senator in or out dependent on how they voted.
Also, if a vote is taken again in 6 months or so it can be seen if progress is being made.
It doesn't hurt to get McCain on record for example. It is hard to see how he can be elected in 08 after this one.
No actually it is always entirely grandstanding. Getting the Senators "on record" has no purpose other than to allow them to go home and insist they "tried" but because of the preponderance of {insert this week's bad guy} in the Senate they couldn't win, but they "tried" so please re-elect them and maybe try to get them some more help "for the future". It's 100% grandstanding every single time, the only purpose it serves is to help the next campaign.
It would have to be in 7 months, after the new winners from mid-terms are elected.
It doesn't help to get McCain "on record" either, he'd already made his position clear to anybody that was paying attention. It won't hurt him in 08, his biggest mountain has always been the conservatives that don't like, they didn't like him in 2000 and won't like him in 2008, but if he finds a way to get the nod he'll cakewalk into the Whitehouse because a lot of libs (especially the press) totally dig him.