DES MOINES, Iowa — The mood is melancholy inside Hy-Vee Hall as Sen. Spartacus descends on Des Moines.

A chartered jet had waited for Sen. Cory Booker at Reagan airport in D.C., and it flew him to flyover country, where he was the keynote speaker at the Iowa Democratic Party’s annual Fall Gala. His party has just suffered a gut punch. Despite a full-court press in which every possible weapon was fired, President Trump got Brett Kavanaugh through the Judiciary Committee and then the full Senate, and thus confirmed to the Supreme Court.