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Alito hearings wrap upSupreme Court nominee likely to be confirmedFrom Bill Mears RELATED
QUICKVOTESPECIAL REPORTYOUR E-MAIL ALERTSWASHINGTON (CNN) -- For Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito, it may be all over but the waiting as his confirmation hearings wrapped up Friday with Democrats mustering little momentum to block his Senate confirmation. Hearings extended into a fifth day with testimony from legal experts, issue advocates and friends of the nominee. Republican senators praised his judicial record and poise, while Democrats complained his answers had been evasive and incomplete. Administration officials, including President Bush, cheered his performance. He finished three days of testimony Thursday, managing to survive often contentious questioning. Alito got the unequivocal support of a key lawmaker, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pennsylvania, a moderate and abortion rights supporter. "We've gone deeply into Judge Alito's background," said Specter at the conclusion of hearings, saying the nominee was as forthcoming on abortion as politically possible. "He's gone about as far as he could go." The next move is up to the committee. Specter again expressed his wish for a vote Tuesday, but the panel's ranking Democrat, Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, indicated he wants a one-week delay, which rules allow. Alito likely has secured the votes of all 10 GOP members of the Judiciary Committee, but the panel's eight Democrats have not indicated which way they will vote. Republicans hold 55 seats in the full Senate, making it difficult for Democrats to raise enough opposition to block an eventual floor vote. But a vote delay remains a likely scenario. At least one Republican committee member said the confirmation vote in the full Senate would be close. "I think there may well be a strict party-line vote," Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, told reporters Thursday. Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, said Thursday night that "Senate Democrats will meet next week to discuss the nomination." A Reid spokesman said the Democratic caucus would want more time to study Alito's testimony from the hearings. The full Senate is to return Wednesday from recess. Filibuster unlikelyDemocrats publicly refused to rule out a filibuster, but that option appears unlikely, according to Senate sources. "I don't think he's going to get many votes from Democrats on the committee," Sen. Charles Schumer, D-New York, a member of the panel, told CBS. "As for a filibuster, it's something we'll have to discuss. So it's not on the table or off the table right now." A filibuster threat would have a hard time getting the support of the "Gang of 14," a bipartisan group of senators. Those lawmakers worked out an informal agreement not to participate in the parliamentary maneuver without "extraordinary circumstances." Two Republican members of the group are on the Judiciary Committee -- Sens. Mike DeWine of Ohio and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina -- and they praised Alito's qualifications during the hearings. To fill the political vacuum between hearings and a vote, advocacy groups said they will unveil radio and TV ads in the coming days. Among those groups were the conservative Progress for America Voter Fund and the liberal IndependentCourt.org. Witnesses on Friday included legal experts who varied widely in their assessment of Alito's jurisprudence. Three lawyers invited by Democrats predicted that if confirmed, the nominee would be most like Justice Antonin Scalia, among the most conservative on the court. "With the vote of Judge Alito, Justice Alito, the court will cut back on Roe v. Wade, step by step," predicted Harvard law professor Laurence Tribe. "Not just to the point where, as the moderate American center has it, abortion is cautiously restricted, but to the point where the fundamental underlying right to liberty becomes a hollow shell." But others praised Alito's approach to the law. Charles Fried, a solicitor general in the Reagan administration who worked with Alito, said he did not believe the judge would vote to overturn the right to abortion. "We don't know what the future holds," Fried said, "but I don't expect him to do things outside the reasonable traditions" established by the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision legalizing the procedure. "It would be disruptive to overrule it. He wouldn't enter that territory." Bush nominated Alito on October 31 to replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. Alito praised the first woman to sit on the high court, telling lawmakers, "I would try to emulate her dedication and her integrity and her dedication to the case-by-case process of adjudication." Judges testifyAfter Alito's testimony Thursday, seven former and current judges offered their support. All know him from the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he sits. Many Democrats and legal ethicists criticized the testimony of sitting judges, saying judicial independence risks being compromised should Alito one day consider, as a Supreme Court justice, cases on appeal from his former colleagues. (Full story) Republicans countered that judges had testified previously in support of high court nominees. Bush on Thursday took time to give kudos to his nominee, calling Alito from Air Force One. "Proud of the way you handled it," Bush told the judge during the phone conversation. "Showed great class." Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on Friday echoed the president's comments about Alito. "Here's someone who's demonstrated that he understands the law. He's committed to follow the law," Gonzales told reporters. "He's demonstrated in these hearings a mastery of constitutional principles. And for all these reasons we believe that he's worthy of a confirmation vote in an expeditious manner." 
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