Your Civics 207 Assignment

Via BooMan, Matt Browner-Hamlin teaches the finer points of Senate filibusters and cloture votes. Of special note:

What should you expect when you see a cloture motion? Lots of debate and delay. After cloture is filed, it takes one day and an hour to ripen. So if a cloture motion is filed on Monday, it cannot be voted on until Wednesday. After the motion for cloture is voted on, there is then 30 hours of debate for post-cloture consideration. This time period includes debate, roll call votes, and quorum calls. Basically each of these three big procedural steps prior to a cloture motion and vote on cloture will add a number of days before the next soonest step can be reached. This is why we expect the entire Senate floor debate of health care reform to be a process that could last, at minimum, a couple of weeks.

And in those couple of weeks minimum, the rumors, playcalling and punditry will be a-flyin'. But frankly, it's just going to take time before we get to the final vote.

If one is allowed to happen, that is. We've got a long way to go still.