So Harry Reid has issued an ultimatum to House Republicans and Republicans in general:
You have until Midnight.
Zero Hour for the Senate is apparently sometime around 1pm Eastern on Tuesday.
Jump over the Squiggle of Doom for the schedule.
So, Reid will file cloture on a motion to proceed at Midnight. That means the vote to begin debate on the measure will be held Sunday at 1PM. And knowing McConnell, they WILL require 60 votes. Personally I'm hoping for a unanimous consent call every hour through the night.
Once (IF) that motion passes, the clock starts, and as we all know, there's 30 hours of "debate" before Reid can call for a vote to "stop" debate. Again, McConnell will require 60 votes. The guess as to that vote is about at 7am Monday. Once "debate" is stopped, then Reid will have to wait ANOTHER 30 hours before the final vote, this one by an actual majority, which will place the earliest time for a vote at 1pm Tuesday. THEN it will have to go back to the House.
And this just in: The House has tentatively scheduled their vote for somewhere between 5:45 and 6:15 this afternoon.
So Reid can cut the process short by tabling the Boehner plan and then using it as a privileged vehicle by stripping out Boehner's language and replacing it with his own. This will cut 30 hours off the clock, as it won't have to go through a motion to proceed. And Reid could still hold continuous votes every hour until it passes cloture and debate stops.
But as Bette said: