Democrats losing hope of blocking Kavanaugh

ORONO, Maine — Democrats have all but acknowledged that they are unable to stop the Senate from confirming Trump nominee Brett Kavanaugh for the U.S. Supreme Court this fall.

Moderate Republican senators such as Susan Collins of Maine, the most closely watched GOP swing vote, are sending strong signals that they will back Kavanaugh. Several Democrats facing difficult re-elections this year have indicated they are open to voting for the judge. And leaders of the resistance to President Donald Trump and his pick are already delivering post-mortem assessments and blaming fellow Democrats for a looming failure.

Barring a major revelation, Kavanaugh the Senate is poised to install the 53-year-old Kavanaugh on the high court and take the next step toward fulfilling Trump’s pledge to remake the Supreme Court — and the wider federal judiciary, potentially for decades.

“There were too many Democrats who decided out of the gate that this was an unwinnable fight,” said Brian Fallon, the executive director of Demand Justice, a leading anti-Kavanaugh group that will continue to oppose the nomination.

The fizzling of the campaign to block Kavanaugh underscores the relative weakness of the Democrats, who had promised their political base a pitched battle to protect the landmark Roe v. Wade abortion ruling and other liberal causes. From the moment Trump introduced Kavanaugh to the nation at a prime-time White House ceremony, Democratic leaders sought to portray the would-be justice as a far-right ideologue and targeted a handful of senators in both parties seen as persuadable.

But Democrats are likely to watch helplessly as the Senate confirms Trump’s second Supreme Court pick; the first was Justice Neil Gorsuch last year. In addition, Republicans have pushed through 24 circuit court judges, a record number for a president in his first two years in office, and two more are in the queue for Senate confirmation.