Goin' nuclear..or not...

This explanation of what now? comes from ABC's The Note:

The Senate gavels into order at 11:30 am ET and conducts a roll call vote at about 5:30 pm to make sure Senators are back from their recess. Cloture was filed Friday by Sen. John Cornyn, concluding the 25 hours or so of debate on the nomination of Priscilla Owen for the 5th circuit court of appeals.

After the vote tonight, the Gang of Twelve is expected to meet privately to try to hash out a final deal. We're told by both sides that reconciling paragraphs three and four of the draft plan —- which deal with the future and what rights the majority leader and the minority will have —- remain the sticking point.

Republicans believe they're in a position of strength because the negotiators seem to agree that judicial nominees should ultimately get an up or down vote, whether it's this week or in, say, July. And Democrats don't really have an argument it seems to pick off the two or three more votes they truly need to prevent a rules change.

The cloture vote, of course, requires 60 ayes for passage under current Senate rules. If it fails Tuesday morning —- if the Senate does not vote to cut off debate —- the majority leader will ask the presiding officer of the Senate, perhaps Vice President Cheney, to rule that filibustering judicial nominees is out of order. The chair would (presumably) do so, and then that's subject to an up or down vote because the Democrats will immediately object in the form of a request to table the point of order.

THAT vote is the key. If a majority agrees to uphold the ruling of presiding officer by REJECTING the Democratic request to table it, then the rules will effectively have been changed and a revote for cloture will occur. 50 + 1 votes will spur an up or down vote.
And then the Democrats will retaliate, somehow.

It's possible that Frist will seek to table the debate after the first cloture vote fails, but that route, which would also trigger the nuclear option, is not as likely as the one we just described.
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So it's all underway today...with cots having been brought in for an all night session. The end result will tell us whether the Repubs are gonna walk all over the Dems when it comes to confirming judges to the Supreme Court or not. This is one tense situation.
Wrap.