The Kavanaugh confirmation process is moving ahead with hearings now scheduled for next month. From Politico:

Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s Senate confirmation hearings will start on Sept. 4 and last between three and four days, Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) announced on Friday.

That scheduling tees up the GOP to meet its goal of getting President Donald Trump’s pick seated on the high court by the time its term begins in early October, barring unforeseen obstacles or a breakthrough by Democrats who are pushing to derail Kavanaugh’s confirmation.

As Karen Townsend pointed out earlier, the Democratic strategy is to stall over document production in hopes of derailing the nomination down the road. After the announcement today Democrats stuck with that strategy:

Republicans just announced that they are scheduling a hearing for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh starting on September 4. This is outrageous. No one will be able to look at his full record before the hearing – not me, not you, not anyone. It won’t have been made public.

— Vice President Kamala Harris (@VP) August 10, 2018

Democrats and various groups used the conspiratorial hashtag #whataretheyhiding in their tweets:

Republicans’ mad rush to hold this hearing after unilaterally deciding to block nearly all of Judge Kavanaugh’s records from public release is further evidence they are hiding important information from the American people, & continues to raise the question, #WhatAreTheyHiding?

— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) August 10, 2018

Republicans have circumvented the process that has been used for every #SCOTUS nominee since #Watergate in favor of a partisan one that will allow them to proceed without transparency or accountability to the Senate or the American people. #whataretheyhiding pic.twitter.com/ZadVLJjxmz

— Sen. Patrick Leahy (@SenatorLeahy) August 10, 2018

Not so fast! The Senate must not move forward with Brett Kavanagh’s confirmation hearing until we see all of his records from his time in the Bush Administration. No documents, no hearing. https://t.co/QuT88k30fw

— Senator Jeff Merkley (@SenJeffMerkley) August 10, 2018

Some appear to have reached the point of despair:

This is such a sham. This nomination process is illegitimate and so will be any Supreme Court with Brett Kavanaugh on it.https://t.co/o4yGsKgv0Z

— Brian Fallon (@brianefallon) August 10, 2018

But the Washington Post reports that Mitch McConnell remains optimistic:

The first day of hearings will be dedicated to opening statements from senators. Kavanaugh will face questioning starting Sept. 5. Then outside witnesses, legal experts and the American Bar Association will follow.

“He’ll get confirmed. It won’t be a landslide, but he’ll get confirmed,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said in an interview Friday morning with WKDZ radio in Kentucky. He said the Senate was “moving right along” for Kavanaugh to be confirmed by Oct. 1, when the Supreme Court will convene for its fall term.

I’m betting Cocaine Mitch will get this done.

This morning, I welcomed Judge Brett Kavanaugh, @POTUS Trump’s outstanding #SCOTUS nominee, to the Senate. I look forward to hearing his testimony, and to voting on his nomination on the floor. pic.twitter.com/KzXdpGvf70

— Leader McConnell (@LeaderMcConnell) July 10, 2018