I've been giving this thought, obviously. I really think this is a display of Republican contempt about where they are as a party and that they're ramming this through because they know how fucked they are, both now and potentially for the foreseeable future. They're being hammered for trying to take healthcare away, they can't campaign on their tax bill because it's so unpopular, they have to dance around the tariff and family separation policies and all they can show from their majority control of everything is that they got Neil Gorsuch confirmed without much hassle.

They have a list from the Federalist Society of 20 or so judges for the Supreme Court and at any time they could have dropped this guy and replaced him with one of them. McConnell told Trump that he had concerns about Kavanaugh, and it was ignored. It's 100% a given that they will get a conservative justice on the court who will probably overturn Roe v. Wade, and they have all of these other judges who could sail like Gorsuch, so why stick with Kavanaugh?

It's gotta be pride. They're a group of contemptible old men who want their guy to win no matter what the cost; they're raiding the place before they get kicked out and they couldn't care less.