[conservatism_IS_compassion]

Should Ginsburg’s seat become open while President Trump is in office, the confirmation battle to replace her will make the Kavanaugh hearings look like a pillow fight ^{will, IMHO, be brief.}

After this fiasco, IMHO the Senate Rules will change at the start of 2019.

I trust that the Republicans will hold the Senate handily, with a functional majority (at least) rather than the effective tie we just saw fought out. And the first thing I think the Republican majority will do is make sure that the Majority Leader can simply call the question, with or without action by the Judiciary Committee, on at most a week’s notice.

And the minority will know that he will use that at the first sign of abuse of process in the committee. Without that assurance, who would dare to go through what Kavanaugh was subjected to?

A century ago, SCOTUS nominees were confirmed by the senate in short order. The Judiciary Committee will be on a very short leash after Kavanaugh.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

. . . of course, if the Democrats take the majority in the senate, there will be no replacements if any SCOTUS justice departs.