Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is in full asshole mode, gloating over having forced Brett Kavanaugh upon the nation and rubbing Democrats' face in it. It's up to Democratic leader Chuck Schumer to decide how to respond: give in and "negotiate," or grind the place to a halt.
McConnell said in a Politico interview Saturday that "he plans confirmations of more lifetime justices before the November election," and will be meeting with Schumer to discuss a package of nominees. He says "Schumer's response could determine when or whether Schumer's vulnerable members will be able to go home and campaign for their seats." Schumer can respond however he wants in that meeting, but that doesn't mean he has to bend to McConnell's will.
He owes it to North Dakota Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, in particular, to allow her all the time she needs back home to campaign. He owes it to every Democrat running except West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, who can figure this out on his own, to block the nominees and give those Democrats the chance to be home. How he does that is by having at least one Democratic senator available at all times to object to unanimous consent for conducting the chamber's business.
There will be plenty of riled up Democratic senators to agree to this plan to help out their colleagues. The Senate runs on unanimous consent. Everything from convening in the morning to calling up votes and allowing committees to meet to adjourning at the end of the day requires unanimous consent, which one senator can refuse to give. By objecting, they would force a time-consuming and painful voting process, where votes could be held open for hours and hours while senators made their way back to Washington. McConnell does have some recourse, and he used it during the Kavanaugh debate. He simply refused for days to adjourn the Senate. Instead, he recessed it, making one "day" in the Senate stretch over an entire week so those housekeeping kinds of things Democrats could object to didn't come up.
The Senate is currently adjourned until Tuesday afternoon. So starting now, at least for the duration of this week, Schumer can start his fight. When they come back on Tuesday, start objecting and keep objecting. It's the federal judiciary at stake here. It's worth making McConnell sweat over.
Make them pay: Donate $1 right now to each of the Democratic candidates and nominee funds targeting vulnerable Senate Republicans running in 2018 and 2020 who just put Brett Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court.