Democrats want to stop Brett Kavanaugh. They may be out of options.

Barring a bad performance, Kavanaugh’s confirmation to be the next Supreme Court justice appears all but assured. That’s because Republicans can push through his nomination with a simple majority, so long as their caucus holds together. And despite Democrats’ best efforts, there’s little evidence they’ve been able to persuade any GOP senators to vote against him.

“There’s no procedural silver bullet to any of this,” says a Senate Democratic aide. “The only way to defeat Brett Kavanaugh is to flip votes.”…

With limited power and long odds, Democrats are gearing up to grill Kavanaugh this week, hoping he’ll stumble. “I think the Democrats realize the only way they’re going to be able to stop him is if there were some sort of explosive thing” to come out during the hearings, says Carrie Severino, chief counsel and policy director of the conservative group Judicial Crisis Network. As Democrats attacked Kavanaugh, conservative groups launched a forceful campaign to shape voter perceptions of the judge, who has sat on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals since 2006. Judicial Crisis Network has spent $4.3 million to support Kavanaugh’s nomination, running ads on Fox, MSNBC and CNN. That’s more than Democratic counterparts, like the progressive judicial advocacy group Alliance for Justice, have been able to spend.