It's Friday, September 8, and Day 208 since Justice Antonin Scalia died and Mitch McConnell decided no nominee would get any Senate attention: No meetings, no hearings, no votes. It's also Day 177 since Merrick Garland was nominated by President Obama to fill that vacancy.

The Senate is not in today. Because a three and a half-day work week was deemed satisfactory after their seven-week "August" recess. Next week, they might be having that Obamacare fight. Mitch McConnell might also escalate his internal war with the House Freedom Caucus by moving a stop-gap funding bill as early as next week, and then adjourning.

That would mean the short-term bill to avoid a government shutdown would be entirely up to the House to pass. It couldn't go back to the Senate because they won't be there. So the funding McConnell is now negotiating with Harry Reid and President Obama would be what Paul Ryan had to bring to the floor, and that would absolutely enrage the Freedom Caucus, on a number of fronts.

First, they hate McConnell. They hate Reid. They hate Obama even more. The fact that this package was negotiated by them is enough to make them oppose it. Second, this bill would fund into early December, giving Congress time in the lame-duck session after the election to maybe actually pass appropriations bills and fund government for reals, at least until next September. The maniacs are deeply distrustful of anything Congress might do in the lame duck, and therefore oppose it.

Finally, because they will oppose this on grounds number 1 and 2 discussed above, Paul Ryan will almost certainly have to work with Nancy Pelosi to get Democrats to support the bill. They hate Pelosi pretty much as much as they hate everyone else named above. Their rage at that happening will be hard to imagine. And oh, so much fun for Paul Ryan to deal with.

Of course, with all this going on next week, there certainly won't be any hearings or votes on Merrick Garland, the only perfectly qualified and non-controversial nominee in history to wait 177 days for even a hearing.

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