Could somebody who knows Senate rules tell me if

[LittleClarkie]

they are debating Janice Brown today, then can someone come up and give a speech about something else right in the middle of it? Or is debate limited to the issue at hand?

[TayTay]

1. They can

The Senate has reserved time to talk about the judicial nominations. But the Senate is apparently all talked out about these nominees and every has already chosen up sides and knows how they are going to vote. (Sigh! Not good for our side.)

Any individual Senator can ask for time, as long as no one else is speaking about the actual matter under consideration. Sen. Wyden must have asked unanimous consent to speak 'as in Morning Business.' The time, I think, comes out of all that time they are not using to not debate Janice Rogers Brown.

I found these actual Rules of the Senate, but I could not keep them:
2. No Senator in debate shall, directly or indirectly, by any form of words impute to another Senator or to other Senators any conduct or motive unworthy or unbecoming a Senator.

I would be unable to keep this once I actually saw Sens. Santorum, Cornyn, Allen or Coburn face-to-face.

3. No Senator in debate shall refer offensively to any State of the Union.
See Sens above. See notion, "What were the voters in that state thinking? Were they all on drugs that day or what?"

Standing Rules of the Senate: (Or the do your own research link):
http://rules.senate.gov/senaterules/rule19.htm

[housewolf]

2. They're in a period of what's called "morning business"

when any senator can request time to talk about anything they want. I thought the Janice Rogers Brown debate was supposted to start at 3pm, but it's a little after that already. It will start when Frist is ready to start it, I guess.

Senate rules are confusing, aren't they? I noticed a few weeks ago when they were supposedly debating the energy bill, Sen Inhofe pleaded for senators to come to the floor to debate the bill, but few did. Instead many came down to talk about other things.