WASHINGTON (AP) – For Samuel Alito, it’s all over but the shouting and the swearing-in.

The Senate on Monday all but guaranteed Alito’s confirmation to the Supreme Court by moving swiftly to shut down a filibuster attempt by liberals worried about his conservative leanings.

By eliminating the possibility of a filibuster with a 72-25 vote, Alito’s Republican and Democratic supporters assured him of a victory in today’s confirmation vote and his place on the nation’s highest court.

Maine Republicans Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins each voted with the majority to end the debate.

After the Senate confirms him – at least 57 senators, 53 Republicans and four Democrats, are expected to approve – Alito will be quickly sworn in so he can appear at President Bush’s State of the Union speech tonight. “Judge Alito is extraordinarily well qualified to serve on our nation’s highest court, and America is fortunate that this good and humble man is willing to serve,” Bush said Monday.

A bloc of Democrats, led by Massachusetts Sens. Edward Kennedy and John Kerry, unsuccessfully tried over the weekend and Monday to persuade other senators to use a vote-delaying filibuster to stop Alito, a 15-year veteran of the U.S. Appeals Court and a former lawyer for the Reagan administration.

“It is the only way we can stop a confirmation that we feel certain will cause irreversible damage to our country,” said Kerry, the Democrats’ 2004 presidential nominee.

Retiring Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, whom Alito will be replacing, has been a swing vote on abortion rights, affirmative action, the death penalty and other contentious issues.

Alito’s supporters needed 60 votes to block the filibuster, and they were joined by 13 Democrats who have announced they will vote against his confirmation.

“I believe that Judge Alito’s nomination, if approved by the Senate, would tilt that court in a direction that will restrict personal freedoms, strengthen the role of government and corporations in our lives, and allow the expansion of power of the presidency,” said Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., who announced he would oppose Alito after voting to end debate.

They were also joined by the last undecided Republican. “I find it regrettable that there are those who are trying to resurrect a filibuster even as there is clearly nothing in the record that constitutes extraordinary circumstances,” said Snowe, who is still publicly undecided.

Sen. Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, the only Republican to announce he will vote against Alito, also refused to support the filibuster attempt. “How are we going to get anything done if we can’t work together?” Chafee asked.

Other Republicans offered warnings.

“If this hyperpoliticization of this judicial confirmation process continues, … someday we will be hard pressed not to employ political tests and tactics against the Supreme Court nominee of a Democratic president,” said Senate Majority Whip Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

At least 53 of the Republicans’ 55-member majority and four Democrats – Robert Byrd of West Virginia, Tim Johnson of South Dakota, Kent Conrad of North Dakota and Ben Nelson of Nebraska – already publicly support Alito’s confirmation.

Chafee, independent Sen. Jim Jeffords of Vermont and most of the rest of the Democrats are expected to vote against Alito.

Alito hasn’t stopped trying to gain more support. He visited with Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., on Monday before the filibuster vote.

Cantwell said later that she would oppose him.

“Judge Alito has a record of concern when it comes to placing and consolidating the rights of the government over the rights of the individual, and he has not provided the answers to adequately reassure the people of our nation,” she said.

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