Thread by @AngelRafPadilla

Update: @SenSchumer just used procedural tools to (briefly) delay Kavanaugh hearings. This might seem like Schumer is fighting to #StopKanavaugh, but it's *not* the most important thing he could be doing if he wanted to win this fight. thehill.com/homenews/senat… 1/

To recap, Democrats have few tools when they're in the minority to stop bad bills or nominees from moving forward. But one tool at their disposal is "withholding consent". Here's our explainer on it: indivisible.org/resource/senat… 2/

That's exactly what Schumer did today -- he withheld consent on McConnell's request to continue with the Kavanaugh hearing beyond the time allowed. Normally, we'd applaud this kind of resistance. 3/

Unfortunately, in this case, what *really* matters is keeping Dems together, which Schumer is NOT DOING. Right now there are roughly 20 Dems who have still not officially come out against Kavanaugh. Here's the list: docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d… 4/

Schumer's most important job as Minority Leader is to hold his caucus together on tough votes. And, if he wanted to win this fight to save the Supreme Court, he'd have 49 Dems locked in as public NO votes. 5/

The bottom line is that a brief delay in the hearings won't stop Republicans from confirming Kavanaugh. Neither will complaints about unreleased documents, FOIA requests, nor asking Republicans nicely to delay the hearings. The only thing that matters is the vote count. 6/

If I had to guess, this very public demonstration from Schumer is the result of all of the bad press he's gotten for his lack of leadership on Kavanaugh. Like this piece: politico.com/story/2018/09/… 7/

More emblematic of Schumer's leadership on Kavanaugh is the deal he cut with McConnell last week to fast track terrible federal judges, while doing nothing meaningful to stop Kavanaugh. #wtfchuck vox.com/2018/8/30/1779…

So my response to news of Schumer delaying hearings is:

Whip the vote!
Whip the vote!
Whip the vote!
Whip the vote!
Whip the vote!

/end