I’m agnostic, but one downside for the Dems might be that this will harden the partisan feelings of Republican moderates which is not necessarily the smartest play heading into the Alito hearings. Of course, the Dems may have reasoned that he’s going to get confirmed anyway, so who cares. But for Senators who actually care about stopping Alito, I don’t see how this could help. Of course, that may be entirely beside the point.