The story begins with Wall Street Journal reporter Jonathan Weisman tweeting this evening:

Scott Brown says Obama called him from AF1 to talk finreg, then dropped da bomb: Dems moving forward on immigration in a month. Get ready.

Weisman later wrote on his blog at the WSJ site:

Brown, in an interview with the Journal’s Neil King Jr., said the president was giving him a heads-up that immigration was coming down the pike and he should give it some serious thought. The senator promised to look closely at the bipartisan bill that Sens. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) and Charles Schumer (D., N.Y.) are trying to produce.

“He called me originally about illegal immigration, something that he wanted me to look at that was coming down the pike,” Brown says of the call, which also roamed onto other topics like basketball and financial regulation. “I told him and others that I will read anything and make a judgment when it comes forth.”

Alluding to the issue a few minutes later, Brown clarified what he told Obama. “When I said I have an open mind, it means I have an open mind to read the bill,” he said. “That doesn’t mean that I will vote for granting amnesty to anyone. But I want to be respectful to the president and to any member who brings me a proposal.”

Brown further hesitated, according to Politico:

“Sen. Brown told the president that he would review any legislation if it came before the Senate, but he believes that the immediate focus should be on fixing the economy and creating jobs,” Brown spokeswoman Gail Gitcho said.

Senator Lindsay Graham (R-SC), the sole Republican sponsoring immigration reform legislation, sounded a pessimistic note, according to Politico:

But Graham is pessimistic. “No one’s spent any political capital laying the groundwork for this,” he told POLITICO Tuesday. “In 2007, with President Bush, you had two Cabinet secretaries up here for three days a week, two to three hours a day. That’s what it takes, and that’s what’s been missing,” he said.

Graham went on to suggest that Congress consider passing an enforcement only bill this year and then going back to try to finish the rest next year.

Of course, that idea is more than a non-starter. In fact, the ridiculousness of this suggestion was highlighted by this post in the HuffPost Hill email newsletter:

MEANWHILE... SCHUMER VS. MENENDEZ OVER IMMIGRATION - A few reporters, including HuffPost Hill, watched as Chuck Schumer and Bob Menendez had an exchange -- let's call it "vibrant" -- outside the Mansfield room this afternoon. "That's how two guys from New Jersey and New York talk!" Menendez explained to someone who asked about it later. The conversation was about immigration. A Schumer source says there was no heat between the two and that while the search continues for a second Republican cosponsor for comprehensive reform, Schumer and Menendez will meet tomorrow. The conversation is pregnant with politics: Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) said today he'd encourage Latinos to stay home in November if Dems don't move on immigration reform. Menendez is head of the Senate campaign arm and Schumer, a lead backer of reform, is its former chairman.

So we're moving forward with reform and it sounds like Obama is ready to roll.