The results are in, and Neil Gorsuch, a Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals judge out in Colorado, is President Trump's nominee to the vacant ninth seat on the Supreme Court. Tonight's announcement concludes a typically Trumpian spectacle in which the President reportedly asked Gorsuch and the other finalist, Third Circuit Judge Thomas Hardiman, to both come to Washington so they could hear the results of the live prime-time announcement as if Trump, a former reality television star himself, were the oldest, most xenophobic titular character in Bachelor history.

Of Trump's potential suitors, Gorsuch is the one whose ideology aligns mostly with that of the man he would replace, the late Justice Antonin Scalia. Gorsuch has frequently expressed admiration for Scalia, and, as he was stuck on a ski lift when he learned of the late justice's death, has admitted to crying the whole way down the mountain afterwards. Like Scalia, Gorsuch is a proponent of originalism—the idea that the Constitution's meaning has not changed since its enactment some two-plus centuries ago—and is staunchly pro-life. Basically, he would be a less bombastic iteration of his predecessor, and at age 49, a staple of the Court for decades to come.

None of this should really matter to Senate Democrats, though, because when the time comes, none of them should vote to confirm him to the Court. This vacancy, as you may recall, did not originate during the twelve-day-old Trump presidency, or even during the period between his election and inauguration. No, Justice Scalia died nearly a year ago, but Republicans, citing to a invented principle composed of equal parts tortured logic and disingenuous lies, asserted that Justice Scalia's successor should not be appointed by President Obama, but by the next president, whoever it may be. (Funny how ably they ignore the Constitution when doing so suits their political goals.) Most GOP senators refused to meet with Obama's nominee, D.C. Circuit Judge Merrick Garland, and in an unprecedented move wouldn't even hold hearings on his nomination. Forget taking their ball and going home—Mitch McConnell and his cronies never showed up to play in the first place.

Now that the tables have turned, of course, GOP luminaries are horrified at the possibility of Democrats rejecting any of Trump's picks, Supreme Court or otherwise. Here's Utah's Orrin Hatch, who evidently possesses the long-term memory of a field mouse:

Pennsylvania senator Pat Toomey: