Here's something to consider here:
Barrett would have played much better as a nominee in terms of political optics, but remember that she would have been a total outsider with no Beltway ties to help her through the process. Kavanaugh has been a political and legal fixture in Washington for years.
As someone else pointed out earlier, the Democrats in this charade have managed to do something I never would have thought possible up until a week ago: They managed to piss off both the Trump "Deplorales" and the Republican Establishment at the same time.
Do a quick search on the various blog posts and Twitter posts from Eric Erickson over the last week or so. This guy was about as rabidly anti-Trump as anyone you'll find in the Republican Party, and he's been on fire in defense of Kavanaugh.
Dang Kennedy....still screwing us to this day. I swear this is all over the place now. On every channel and website. I don’t see how he can survive this. Do you?