Like that would of mattered, the Republicans would of rolled over for any nominee he picked even after November.
However, since the law is that a President has the right to choose his or her own SC Justices, the Republicans (who, unlike the Dems, follow the law) are more generous in their confirmations than the Dems, who disregard all laws and all decency and personally attack highly qualified men such as Bork and Thomas based on purely political animus.
Nonetheless, I stand by my first comment that it would have been more difficult to get an unqualified radical past a Republican majority than it will be now.