The vote WILL, positively, absolutely, unequivocally start within a few minutes of 11:00 AM. That hs been known since Thursday, last week, with the only contingency being passage of cloture (which by a rough count, was also easily "in the bag").
The 40 minutes leading up to 11:00 are assigned as follows:
10:20 - :30 - Leahy
10:30 - :40 - Specter
10:40 - :50 - Reid
10:50 - 11:00 - Frist
The DEMs asked for 2 or 3 minutes extra, and sarcastically said that since this is a SCOTUS nominee, the vote could wait an additional several minutes. These guys had HOURS available, all of last week, and didn't use the time then.
Do you think they will remove Leahy from the ranking member's chair..?