WASHINGTON (AP) – Samuel Alito is gliding toward confirmation as a Supreme Court justice after a week of hearings in which Democrats tried to stop him with withering questions on abortion, presidential power and ethics.

Judiciary Committee chair Arlen Specter, R-Pa., closed five days of hearings Jan. 13 and announced his support for Alito’s ascension to the high court. Democrats indicated they would delay a committee vote for a week, but there was no indication they could stop the nomination from reaching the full Senate or being approved.

The Democrats argue that the former Reagan administration lawyer is likely to tip the court’s balance to the right in replacing centrist Sandra Day O’Connor. But with little success so far peeling away Alito’s support to be the nation’s 110th Supreme Court justice, they were noncommittal about trying to mount a filibuster on the Senate floor.

Comments during the hearings have shown a clear split between the panel’s Republicans and Democrats, and Specter predicted, “It’s going to be a party-line vote” in the committee.

The hearings closed with testimony from law professors, former Alito colleagues and a representative of an abortion rights group.

Kate Michelman, former president of the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League, told the panel that Alito’s promise to approach cases that affect abortion rights with an “open mind” does not mean he would follow O’Connor’s model of independence.

“Justice O’Connor assesses each case with careful attention to what the law means and who it effects, for she knows that is where the essence of justice lies,” Michelman said in prepared remarks. “In Judge Alito’s approach to the law, there are no individuals, there is no privacy. And without them, there can be neither justice nor human dignity.”

Specter said Alito – and Chief Justice John Roberts before him – answered the abortion questions correctly: by declining to say how they would vote if the issue came before them on the high court.

“I think he went about as far as he could go,” Specter said of Alito. “From my reading, I don’t think there’s a dime’s worth of difference between what Chief Justice Roberts said and what Judge Alito said.”

Democrats want to give their caucus time to study the hearing transcripts, Manley said. Also to be considered is whether any reason exists to filibuster the nomination, but the chances of such a maneuver appeared slim.

“I don’t think he’s going to get many votes from Democrats on the committee,” Sen. Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat on the committee, told CBS’ “The Early Show.” “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.”

At least two moderate Republicans in the “Gang of 14” – centrist senators who have promised not to participate in a judicial filibuster without there being “extraordinary circumstances” – have said they would not support a filibuster on Alito.

Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, “does not believe that Judge Alito warrants a filibuster,” spokesperson Antonia Ferrier said.

Sen. Lincoln Chafee, R-R.I. “has said he has not seen any extraordinary circumstances,” spokesperson Stephen Hourahan said.

GOP senators, both on and off the committee, praised Alito, who has been a federal appeals court judge for the past 15 years, as his testimony ended Jan. 12.

“I enthusiastically endorse and support Judge Alito’s nomination,” Chuck Hagel of Nebraska said.

Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., noted to the judge that his high school friends “predicted you would serve on the Supreme Court one day, and I think that’s going to turn out to be a good prediction.”

Added a Democratic senator, Ben Nelson of Nebraska, “So far I have seen nothing during my interview with the nominee, the background materials that have been produced or through the committee process that I would consider a disqualifying issue against Judge Alito.”

Democrats face an uphill battle in finding enough votes to filibuster Alito’s nomination – the only way they can stop him. It takes 41 votes to sustain a filibuster, and there are 44 Democrats and one Democratic-leaning independent in the Senate.

Several committee Democrats made it clear they were not inclined to vote for Alito, including Schumer and Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts.

After four days of hearings, there are “even more questions about Judge Alito’s commitment to the fairness and equality for all,” Kennedy said.

The Democrats repeatedly attacked Alito’s decisions as a judge on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and his writings while a lawyer for the Reagan administration – including a 1985 statement saying the Constitution did not protect the right to an abortion – and they highlighted his membership in an alumni organization that discouraged the admission of women and minorities at Princeton University.