"Vice President Biden intends to deliver his debate answers in words. If the president thinks his best case is made in urine he can have at it," said Kate Bedingfield, Biden's deputy campaign manager. "We'd expect nothing less from Donald Trump, who pissed away the chance to protect the lives of 200K Americans when he didn't make a plan to stop COVID-19."

"Instead, in sync with Joe Biden's presidential campaign, Democrats want to replicate their successful 2017 fight to preserve the Affordable Care Act, which peeled off enough GOP senators to defeat Trump's bid to repeal the health law. They remain skeptical of defeating this particular nominee, expected to be Judge Amy Coney Barrett, but Democrats believe this policy-focused message could propel them to big wins in the November elections."

I think this is smart.  Make sure everyone knows what  the stakes are.  These hearings will be the perfect place to make the case.

IMO they need to stay miles away from her religion no matter how weird it is.  

They can't stop this but they can use it.  It might not be the worst thing to have three Trump appointees vote against Trumps little coup.  

Trump has publicly stated that Justice Ginsburg must be replaced before the election so as to be in a position to rule on election results he is in the process of undermining so as to assure a dispute. And, of course, there is the red meat offered up of ACA and Roe, for now with more to come.

With the pedal to the metal on the confirmation process (Both Kavanaugh and Gorsuch's hearings started two months after the nomination) and Lindsey claiming the Republicans have the votes to confirm, the inaptness of the nomination is compounded by its confirmation sham. The Cony Barrett of Merrick Garland days would agree. It would be wrong, she said, to "flip the balance" of the Court in an election year.

For the Democrats to participate in this confirmation normalizes its wrongness and down plays its outrage.

All Democratic senators, save for Donnelly, Kaine and Manchin, voted against the nominee when being considered for appellate judge. Her record of extremism has become even more clear since that time. As a Supreme Court Justice, she is likely to be Alito on steroids.

The hasty hearings probably will not be of the Kavanaugh tone. Judge Cony Barrett will not show hostility or sing praises of beer. She will be pleasant. But, her responses are likely to be non-responses, reflecting professional coaching: only calling "balls and strikes,"  unable to comment since ACA/Roe cases may come before me, and religious beliefs will not infuse my decisions--just the facts and the law.

The fawning of the Republicans and the disingenuous responses to the sharp questions of Democratic senators, such as Kamala Harris, will only add to this shambolic process.

Why Don't Republicans Sound Excited That Their SCOTUS Picks Might Fulfill GOP Promises?

Michael McConnell, a former federal appellate judge and an extremely influential thinker in right-wing legal circles, published a Washington Post op-ed Tuesday afternoon arguing that even with Coney Barrett's addition to the court, the chances of Roe being overturned were still extremely low.

The argument came with a political analysis that could be read as a warning directed at justices who themselves might be considering reversing the precedent of Roe:

The politics would not be kind to pro-lifers. Right now, abortion-related disputes concern marginal cases (such as late-term abortions, parental consent, sex-selective abortion and disposal of fetal remains) where public opinion is divided and the majority might even support increased restrictions. If Roe were overruled, the debate would shift to out-and-out prohibitions, where public opinion is squarely on the side of abortion rights. Republican Party primaries would feature fights to the death between purists and compromisers, and a united pro-choice Democratic Party would gain the advantage.