I’m sure Bannon thinks that introducing the Supreme Court fight into the chaotic first weeks of the administration will bring conservatives rallying behind them. He might be right but it will also take away whatever momentum or political capital they might have had left for any other major issues.
The clock is ticking on Trump’s first 100 days and the chances of accomplishing anything big after that will be low, as Republicans start to recoil from the prospect of facing the voters again in 2018. So it was really a dumb move to introduce Gorsuch now with so much else going on, if we all dig in.
With only a few cabinet nominees approved, the Senate committees will already be tied up for the next few weeks or months, even before they get to their big healthcare replacement bill or tax cuts, not to mention the treaties and trade deals that Trump has said he wants to renegotiate right away.
As a result, I expect Republicans will try to rush the nomination through the process for a vote just to get it out of the way before it distracts from the rest of their plans for the key first one hundred days but this is the exact opposite of what Democrats should let them do, and there is obvious precedent.
Mitch McConnell made us wait over a year without even meeting with Merrick Garland, so now they can wait for a year before Democrats will seriously consider a nominee from Donald Trump, either. What’s the big rush? One year with eight justices is fine but two years with eight is the end of days?
Joe Manchin has already announced that he will not filibuster, but he is strongly against Republicans dropping the filibuster. Talk about a useful idiot for Republicans. More Democrats will probably join Manchin on this, but I doubt Republicans will get to sixty votes. Ultimately McConnell will go nuclear.
So it is probably inevitable Gorsuch will get a filibuster free vote, however there is no justification at all for rushing that when the same GOP trying to rush this is the one that put Garland off for a year. Every time they whine Democrats are delaying, there is a simply reply: Remember Merrick Garland.