I’m told that Majority Leader Harry Reid made a cloture motion on Monday and that, probably today, debate will begin on the nomination of Harold Koh to be the State Department’s legal counsel. Procedurally, the vote will be taken up as early as this morning, which will begin 30 hours of debate. According to Congressional Quarterly:

Republicans have indicated they would take advantage of the opportunity to use the 30 hours of debate if the Senate votes for cloture on Wednesday morning. Cloture could set up a final vote on Koh’s nomination by Thursday evening, making it difficult for Democrats to get anything else done before the recess. “There are some of us here in the Senate who will require full and extensive debate before this nominee receives a vote,” James M. Inhofe, R-Okla., said Tuesday. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., agreed, saying that even if Democrats do have the votes to cut off debate, “there is still a lot of strong opposition” to Koh.

The best source of information on Koh is — of course — Ed Whelan, whose series on the former Yale Law School dean is posted at the Ethics and Public Policy Center website, here. My own meanderings on the nomination are here, here and — in response to Ted Olson’s endorsement of Koh – here.