The confirmation hearings of Neil Gorsuch have taught us two things. First, Gorsuch is an impressive judge and an upright man who has showed amazing grace under pressure, as well as a sense of humor.

Second, the Democrats are desperate to block him and are willing to make fools of themselves in order to do it.

Senate Democratic Leader Charles Schumer (N.Y.) says he will oppose Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch and urge fellow Democrats to do the same.

Schumer announced Thursday that Democrats will filibuster Gorsuch and force Republicans to muster 60 votes to advance him to a final up-or-down vote.

“He will have to earn 60 votes for confirmation. My vote will be no, and I urge my colleagues to do the same,” he said on the Senate floor.

However, this will be a fight that Schumer is destined to lose, one way or another. First of all, he has the dubious honor – as do many other current Democratic senators – of confirming Gorsuch to the Court of Appeals back in 2006.

Gorsuch to go in front of Senate today; just 11 years ago he was unanimously confirmed to his appeals court seat pic.twitter.com/KCrdXZD0RD

— FOX & friends (@foxandfriends) March 20, 2017

This pretty much proves that it’s not Gorsuch himself that the Democrats object to. It’s the fact that he’s there at all. They are still sore about not being able to get Judge Garland in before Trump’s inauguration (the Biden Rule notwithstanding), and they never expected to have to confirm a Supreme Court justice chosen by a President Trump. Thus, this is a doubly bitter pill for them to swallow, and they know they have no good reason to not confirm Neil Gorsuch. Except for their FEELINGS. They want his personal opinions spread out for all to see. His insistence that the “law is the law” and thus the only guide he will use to make judgments seems to have them confused.

“We do not want judges with ice water in their veins. What we want and need are judges who understand the litigants before them and bring a modicum, at least a modicum, of human judgment into the courtroom,” Schumer said.

Here is what Schumer really means, in song:

Excuse me, Senator, YES, we want emotionally detached judges who do not let their “human judgment” get in the way of the rule of law! Why do you think Lady Justice is blind???

But launching a filibuster is a dubious proposition.

His filibuster is laying the tripwire for Republicans to just simply get rid of the minority party’s ability to require 60 votes on any nominee. And that means Democrats are disarming their future selves from their best tool to block Supreme Court nominees down the road — say, when moderate and liberal vacancies open up and give Trump a chance to change the balance of power in the court for decades.

“The chance of success of this are basically zero,” said Robert David Johnson, a Brooklyn College history professor.

Republicans have only 52 members, which means they’re faced with a choice: scramble to find eight red-state Democrats to join them to support Gorsuch, or blow up the filibuster for nominees. (In 2013, Senate Democrats got rid of the filibuster for Cabinet and lower-court nominees.)

President Trump has expressed little qualms with getting rid of the filibuster, urging his party in the Senate to “go nuclear,” as the move is dubbed. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), a practiced student of Senate procedure, is more hesitant. But he’s indicated getting Gorsuch on the bench is his top priority.

Now, the question is, will the rank-and-file Democrats go along with their leadership on a filibuster?

A group of Senate Democrats is beginning to explore trying to extract concessions from Republicans in return for allowing Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch to be confirmed, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter.

The current talks are limited to about a half-dozen Democratic lawmakers. They haven’t made an offer to Republicans yet, and Democratic leaders wouldn’t support one.

Democrats familiar with the effort requested anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter that divides the caucus. Some liberals are aiming to block Gorsuch, while others are worried about the electoral prospects for 10 senators up for reelection next year in states won by Trump if they’re seen as obstructing the president’s court pick.

Neil Gorsuch is a perfectly and impeccably qualified judge, and the Democrats know it. But instead of succumbing to the inevitable, they will either alter Senate rules forever (precedent set by Harry Reid for that) or show how deeply divided they are if they are not united in a filibuster effort. Either way, they will lose. How badly they lose will be up to how many senators decide to keep eating sour grapes.