No longer do the claims of giving a nominee a hearing on their merits carry any weight. It is now evident that conservative or liberal, Supreme Court nominations are purely an ideological and political event.
IMHO, they never carried any weight, at least not since the 1960s when the politicization of the judiciary began to take full effect. This was highlighted by the mother of all rulings (RvW) in 1973 and the string of Anti-American rulings that have followed.
The liberals realized this long before we did. The only chance of it ever changing is by getting five strict constructionists (i.e. people who read and interpret the actual text of the Constitution, rather than making it up ourt of whole cloth as they go along) on there. Liberals will always hate and oppose strict constructionists. Once we realize that, we can skip the pretense and accept the unpleasant fact that the SC has been completely politicized, and our only choice is to win.
I agree with you on that, but we were still under the pretense that it wasn't then.
It certainly is out in the open now.