Richard Primus has an excellent and clear eyed analysis of what needs to be done: focus on the dfangers of the Trump presidency and do not squander needless energy on Gorsuch.
"But I wouldn’t be surprised if the right prescription here were something like this: Don’t pretend that Gorsuch isn’t qualified. Do use the process to keep foregrounding Trump’s unconstitutional actions and attitudes, and the Republicans’ egregious behavior in Garland’s case, and the fact that most American voters voted against letting Trump be the one to fill the seat. And use the process also as a vehicle for bringing more energized people into the fight to defend the Republic against a uniquely dangerous President."
"... That doesn’t mean that the Democrats should just roll over, behave meekly, and vote in favor. But it likely does mean that the Democrats need to see the confirmation process as an opportunity for shaping public discussion about Trump rather than as an occasion for attacking Gorsuch. Time spent attacking Gorsuch in particular (whether about qualifications or about substantive views or pretty much anything else) might not be time well spent: he is going to be confirmed. But what Democrats can do, I’d think, is keep saying that we are only here because the Republicans stonewalled a nominee at least as qualified as Gorsuch for no justifiable reason, and that most American voters voted against letting Donald Trump fill the seat. They can ask Gorsuch himself to stand by his earlier written statements that Garland was a highly qualified nominee (for the DC Circuit) and to ask him whether the stonewall was appropriate. And they can ask him what he thinks about all sorts of Trump’s actions and statements. Is it appropriate for a public official to attack a federal judge as biased on the grounds of the judge’s ethnicity? What is the point of the Emoluments Clause? Do you think that this or that statement (quoted from Trump) is consistent with our constitutional values? And so on. Gorsuch might or might not answer, but the Democrats should find good ways to keep asking and to make those questions a big part of what people hear and talk about when they hear and talk about this process."
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