AS IF THEY WOULDN’T DO THE SAME: Dems angered by GOP plan to hold judicial hearings in October.

Democrats and liberal groups are fuming over a GOP plan to hold Senate hearings for President Trump’s judicial picks over the next two weeks while senators are out of town campaigning for the midterm elections.

Judiciary Committee Democrats sent a letter Monday to Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the panel’s chairman, criticizing the hearings and noting that Democrats were not even consulted about their scheduling.

“The committee has never before held nominations hearings while the Senate is in recess before an election,” the letter stated. “The handful of nominations hearings that have been held during a recess have been with the minority’s consent, which is not the case here — in fact, we were not even consulted.”

The two hearings are set for Wednesday and Oct. 24. Next week’s hearing is tentatively scheduled to include two nominees for appeals judges on the Ninth Circuit, even though Democrats say senators who represent states in the Ninth Circuit would not be able to return to Washington for the hearing.

Democrats want Grassley to delay the hearings until after the Senate returns to Washington on Nov. 13.

“Holding hearings during a recess, when members cannot attend, fails to meet our constitutional advice-and-consent obligations,” Democrats wrote in the letter.

Democrats were backed up in their request by progressive outside groups, who warned that Republicans would “abuse their power” by holding a hearing in Washington, D.C., during the recess.

Well, if “progressive outside groups” are against it, that changes everything.