I'm not sure at this point. None of the Senators wants to do that. I figure the DEMs will mislead the GOP somehow, such as promising a UC agreement to vote on Monday or Tuesday, but not delivering it.
I don't think there is any urgent need to hold the Senate for the weekend. Frist is offering all night tonight, and all of tomorrow night for debate. He can file a cloture motion on Friday, offer debate through the weekend, and hold the cloture vote "whenever" on or before Tuesday.
... surprised that Reid had no opening comments?
Me too. I also notice that a couple other matters will be intruding on the debate on Alito - renewal of the PATRIOT Act and NSA hearings come to mind.
C-SPAN announced earlier that the Senate would have debates until 11:30am, lunch break, resume at 2:30pm and would go until 11:30 tonight. (There presumably will be a dinner break in there somewhere.)
If they have a unanimous consent agreed to, that would be the end, because it would take another unanimous consent to override it.
Frist will each day ask for unanimous request to schedule the vote on friday, and it will be rejected, and eventually will file for cloture, which will signal two more days. ALSO, I believe that cloture motion will offer additional debate for both sides before the vote.
So the timing would probably be cloture filed at 11pm thursday night, with cloture voted on monday, leaving time for additional debate and a vote on tuesday. My guess.