When President Trump nominated D.C. Circuit Court Judge Brett Kavanaugh to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, red-state Democrats up for re-election knew they faced a difficult choice: betray either liberal party leaders or the conservative voters who could end their political career.

Kavanaugh’s solid performance during Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings eliminated the possibility of a misstep that Democrats hoped for, leaving Sens. Joe Donnelly, D-Ind., Jon Tester, D-Montana, Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., and Joe Manchin, D-W.V., with the same no-good-option dilemma.

Delay was the best hope for the political future of these five moderate Democrats. And for a week, it looked like the last-minute referral from Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., to the FBI of Christine Blasey Ford’s sexual assault accusation against Kavanaugh would stall the vote until after the November midterms. But now that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has vowed a floor vote on Kavanaugh’s nomination "in the near future," red-state Democrats face an impossible choice.

The choice awaiting Democrats is now between confirming Kavanaugh or endorsing a "grotesque and obvious character assassination" of public servants to achieve political ends.

While the public at first seemed sympathetic toward Ford, as more details emerged it became clear that Ford’s last-minute charge lacked merit. But as Ford’s allegations fell apart, the New Yorker ran an uncorroborated hit piece promoting Deborah Ramirez’s claim that, after “six days of carefully assessing her memories and consulting with her attorney,” she believed that, while in college, Kavanaugh had exposed himself to her.

[Also read: Support for Brett Kavanaugh dropping: Fox News poll]

Concern for putative victims turned to righteous anger on behalf of Kavanaugh, his wife, and two young daughters. And before Senate Democrats could reclaim the narrative, Stormy Daniels' gadfly attorney Michael Avenatti cemented the public’s disgust over the treatment of Kavanaugh, with Avenatti claiming he has evidence that Kavanaugh promoted and participated in gang rape.

Red-state Democrats will soon have a choice to make. But it is a much different one than they faced just a month ago: A "no" vote on Kavanaugh now is not merely bucking the desires of their conservative electorate, but it is a "yes" vote on vile character assassination.

Donnelly, Tester, Heitkamp, and Manchin must now decide and publicly proclaim whether they are for decency, or smears.

Margot Cleveland (@ProfMJCleveland) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner' s Beltway Confidential blog. She served nearly 25 years as a permanent law clerk to a federal appellate judge and is a former full-time faculty member and current adjunct professor for the college of business at the University of Notre Dame.