While we have been talking about how the Senate will start the debate on health care reform after a break for Thanksgiving, it's not exactly going to be a fast start when Senators return.

When the Senate left town after the 60-39 vote on Saturday night that paved the way for debate, the schedule for November 30 and December 1 set out by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid doesn't exactly indicate much urgency.

On Monday, November 30, the Senate returns from Thanksgiving at 2pm.

At 3pm, the Senate resumes consideration of H.R. 3590, which is the legislative vehicle for the Democratic health reform plans.

"There will be no roll call votes on Monday, November 30th."

In other words, just some blabbing, no amendments or anything else.

On Tuesday, the Senate will vote on a federal district court judge at 12 noon, the first vote of the week.

After that, both parties will have their regular weekly lunches.

It's a good bet that most of those meetings will be spent figuring out what do on health care, especially in terms of procedural maneuvering.

I exchanged emails with a top aide to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on Tuesday, asking what the first amendment would be that Democrats intended to offer to the health care bill.

The answer was, they had not decided as yet.

That tells me, we aren't going to get off to a roaring start next week, especially since a lot of the News Oxygen will be taken by the President's plans on Afghanistan.

We'll see how many Saturdays in December are filled with "real" work on health care.