I'm reminded of Seinfeld when George finds out that Jerry slept with George's new girlfriend. George says he gets to punish Jerry by sleeping with Elaine. Jerry says that that would not punish Jerry, but would punish Elaine, and "quite cruelly, I might add."
Shutting down the Senate, making the GOP stay in their mattresses 24 hours a day to ensure a quorum is present, while the Rats go home to their warm beds and home cooked meals, won't punish the Rats, but will bring a halt to the President's agenda and won't ever be broken.
There are only 2 ways to break this deadlock in the short term (in the long term, you have to get 60 GOP Senators):
1. Submit a rule change proposal to limit filibusters for judicial nominees. As I understand it, this type of proposal can be passed by a supermajority of those present, which means that the RATS will be the ones who have to stay close by, or else they will lose the vote. The rats will not be able to sustain this very long, as we head into campaign season and summer vacations. This filibuster would be a hardship on the Dems.
2. Use the cramdown approach. With Cheney presiding, someone moves to bring the nomination to a vote. Rats object. Cheney declares that the Senate rules violate the US Constitution, and declares the motion in order. The vote is taken, which makes Tommy Boy "deeply saddened". Repeat as necessary.
You can preceed the cramdown with a few weeks of warning to let the Rats know that we are prepared to do what it takes. Hold hearings in the Judiciary Committee about the conflict between Senate Rules and the Constitution, and have experts opine on which should govern. Hold a party line vote at the end of the hearing that says that the committee has found that the US Constitution governs. Let the Rats oppose that! Then, if they don't allow the nomination to go to a vote, only then does Cheney send it to the floor anyway.
'Twill be a massive coronary in the editorial pages of the NYT, but the average American will little care, and those that do will be the committed on the left or right. Those on the middle will be able to see that the obstructionism forced the GOP to take this hard line.
I don't like the idea of recess appointments, except perhaps as part of a 2 track approach that puts some people on the bench temporarily while you put in place the strategy that will break this filibuster.