Senate Democrats have a decision to make and not a long time to make it. The Senate is scheduled to come in at 4:30 ET Monday afternoon, at which time Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will move to adjourn the Senate for two weeks. Well, for purposes of votes on things like COVID-19 relief. He intends for the Judiciary Committee to just go on ahead with remote confirmation hearings for Amy Coney Barrett, center of the Rose Garden Massacre, the superspreader event that's crippling the White House.
The first thing Senate Democrats need to do it is to use committee rules and refuse to show up in the Judiciary Committee. Don't give Lindsey Graham a quorum to do anything. Right now, three Republican members on the committee are in quarantine—two because they're infected, one because he's been exposed. (Three more should be because of exposure, but haven't announced they're self-isolating.) A majority of committee members have to be "actually present" to advance a nomination, which means 12 members. Graham's now working with just nine available. We don't know what the next two weeks will bring, but it's worth gambling on at least a few Republicans being out.
The next thing Democrats need to do is deny McConnell's unanimous consent request to adjourn on Monday. Because once that adjournment is granted, it can't be revoked. McConnell wants it—don't give it to him. That's not to say adjournment can't happen in the next few days, but Democrats can buy some time to see what they can extract. Notably, they shouldn't adjourn while negotiations on a possible COVID-19 relief bill continue between House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Mnuchin. Even from his sick bed, Trump 'roid rage tweeted that Congress has to "GET IT DONE," so, hell, Democrats can use that as a wedge to get Republicans further fractured.
If that doesn't work for them, Democrats could negotiate on adjournment: agree to adjourn when he acts to delay a floor vote on Barrett until after the election. After Oct. 19, or whatever adjournment end they decide on, then Schumer and fellow Democrats can throw the procedural book at McConnell, using every delaying tactic at their disposal should he renege on the deal. Because, face it, he'll renege on any deal. He's McConnell.
Making the case to the traditional media and the people—who are voting right now in record-breaking early polling numbers—that this nomination needs to wait until the people have spoken shouldn't be hard. Hell, the Republicans used it for almost an entire year in 2016 and got away with it.
Which highlights the final point: Democrats need to play hardball, just like McConnell would if the situation were reversed. There's a lot they can do in the minority, especially when he's down five members because of COVID-19 quarantine. It's not all on Schumer; the fighting progressive wing of the party—like Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders and Jeff Merkley and Brian Schatz—needs to be making noise, pushing Schumer to do the right thing and backing him up when he does.
At the very, very least, they should not give McConnell an adjournment today. Not without extracting something in return.