By now, you’re likely aware of the background and dynamics ahead of this brewing Senate battle — as more Democrats announce their support for Chuck Schumer’s anti-Gorsuch filibuster, premised on an imaginary ’60 vote’ standard he conjured in his head with little factual support. The latest bandwagon-jumper is former Clinton running mate Tim Kaine, whose embrace of this obstructionist tactic is, shall we say, noteworthy, in light of his stance in favor of extending the Reid Rule and further nuking the filibuster on behalf of Hillary’s would-be Supreme Court nominees.

I’m not sure Democrats’ self-interested double standards on these issues can be distilled down into a purer form than Kaine’s new and expired positions. As an aside, Kaine’s weak rationale for seeking to block Gorsuch is the judge’s supposed activism against abortion rights. Not only does this claim have virtually no basis in Gorsuch’s actual record, it’s an interesting attack coming from a politician who touted his support for the “sanctity of life” and various abortion restrictions as recently as 2005. At some point, Kaine apparently recognized that an inviolable litmus test for advancement in the modern Democratic Party was adopting a dogmatic commitment to abortion fanaticism, and shifted accordingly.