At least McConnell is making all the right noises, still. Today on the Senate floor, McConnell issued his clearest statement yet that an Obama SCOTUS appointment was absolutely not going to happen this year:

Washington (CNN)Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell issued his most definitive statement on Tuesday: There will be no Supreme Court nominee confirmed in President Barack Obama’s final year in office.

In a sharply worded statement on the Senate floor, McConnell bluntly warned the White House that the GOP-controlled Senate would not act on anyone he chooses to sit on the high court.

“Presidents have a right to nominate just as the Senate has its constitutional right to provide or withhold consent,” McConnell said. “In this case, the Senate will withhold it.”

Meanwhile, worthless bag of human flesh Susan Collins says she wants to have hearings, and so does Mark Kirk, who is facing a tough re-election fight. I hope that what is happening here is that McConnell has given some vulnerable Senators some room to make public noises that hearings should be held while he has volunteered to go out and be the public face of the movement that says “We’re not even holding hearings.” McConnell, after all, is safe until 2020, when literally no one will remember this fight, and he basically has the ability to control the Senate calendar by himself.

So hopefully Senators like Kirk and Collins have been given permission to make noises about having hearings so they can go home and say to their constituents that it isn’t their fault. However, long years of experience with the GOP-led Senate lead me to worry that what might happen is that these self-interested clowns might prevail upon McConnell to actually hold hearings, in which case, it’s Katie-bar-the-door.