Whatever.

The Senate will be in session this Saturday evening, ahead of a scheduled 8 pm cloture vote on the motion to proceed to debate historic health care legislation, TPMDC has learned. Assuming Majority Leader Harry Reid has the 60 votes he needs to leap that hurdle, Democrats will likely have to eat up 30 hours before they can hold the actual vote--at a 51-vote threshold--on the motion to proceed itself. Still with me?

Doing some math, that means the bill won't be cleared for debate and amendments and so forth until, at the earliest, 2 am Monday morning. Even if that happens, the bill will likely have to be read aloud (another two day process) so we're still looking at debate in earnest after Thanksgiving recess.

Now, I've confirmed that the Republicans have agreed to back off this plan in exchange for Democrats allowing a full-day's debate on Saturday, before the scheduled evening vote.

Also, and importantly, as part of a unanimous consent agreement, the Saturday vote will serve as the motion to proceed itself. If there are 60 votes on Saturday, the bill will be on the floor, and debate can begin.

“It’s classic politics of our time that if you look at the campaign last year, presidential, you can’t find a mention of public option,” Lieberman said. “It was added after the election as a part of what we normally consider health insurance reform — insurance market reforms, cover people, cover people who are not covered.

In fact, the 2008 Democratic Party Platform referred to the need for a “public plan,” and candidate Barack Obama referred more than once to the idea of providing people who can’t get private insurance with government-backed insurance similar to that which members of Congress get.

Going for it on fourth and 2 from your 28 with 2:08 left and a 34-28 lead says one of two things.

You either have supreme confidence in your offense’s ability to convert or you have no faith in your defense’s ability to stop the opposition on a subsequent possession.

Maybe it was both for Bill Belichick last night.

You can argue his offense piled up 468 yards prior to that call. You can also say his defense’s effort against Peyton Manning, while admirable, hardly would inspire confidence that a punt would lead to a game-ending stand by that still-growing unit.

What’s hard to disagree with is that it was, at the very least, a jaw-dropping move. The Patriots coach sent his offense out there, called his final timeout, then trotted Tom Brady and Co. out there once again, this time with a well-thought-out play call that would determine whom walked out of this one with a win.