We still don’t know what will happen, but there finally seems to be some kind of timeline as to when it will happen. Or not.

Here is a rough estimate of the timing for Sunday’s votes:

2 p.m.: The House will debate for one hour the rules of debate for the reconciliation bill and the Senate bill.

3 p.m.: The House will vote to end debate and vote on the rules of the debate.

3:15 p.m.: The House will debate the reconciliation package for two hours.

5:15 p.m.: The House will vote on the reconciliation package.

5:30 p.m.: The House will debate for 15 minutes on a Republican substitute and then vote on the substitute.

6 p.m.: The House will vote on the final reconciliation package.

6:15 p.m.: If the reconciliation bill passes, the House will immediately vote on the Senate bill, without debate.

So if you’re chewing your nails, be sure to pace yourself. It’ll be roughly 5:15 p.m. before we get the first real indication whether Bart Stupak is going to carry out his murder-suicide pact. That would be the murder of healthcare reform, and political group suicide by Stupak and his cult followers. (They couldn’t really be that stupid, could they?)

I think that, one way or the other, by the end of the day, stupak is going to enter the political lexicon as a verb. Let’s hope it’s for childish attention-seeking grandstanding before finally coming to one’s senses.

*** Update, 9:47 a.m. ***

Let’s not forget this possibility:

But if the vote counting goes poorly for the Democratic leadership today, it’s also possible that Speaker Pelosi could delay a vote until tomorrow (or later), if she decides the votes aren’t there and she needs more time to get them.