Centrists seen shying from filibuster

WASHINGTON -- Centrist senators who may decide the fate of Supreme Court nominee Samuel A. Alito Jr. are showing a reluctance to permit a filibuster of the conservative nominee, enhancing Alito's chances of being confirmed to the high court despite heated opposition from liberal and abortion rights groups.

No Democrat has threatened a filibuster, a parliamentary tactic wherein a minority of senators can hold up a nominee by refusing to end debate and allow an up-or-down vote. But Alito is already winning initial plaudits from key, moderate senators who could halt any effort at a filibuster.

''We feel we have some considerable momentum going forward," said former senator Dan Coats, an Indiana Republican who is shepherding Alito around the Capitol this week. The two men have had ''an excellent series of meetings" with senators in both parties, Coats said after a session with Senator Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Several members of the so-called Gang of 14, a bipartisan group of moderate senators, also spoke kindly of Alito and hinted that they would not tolerate a filibuster unless new and damaging information emerged about Alito's character or competence. The group of moderates is scheduled to meet today to discuss President Bush's third selection to replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.

Alito ''assured me that he wants to go to the bench without a political agenda" and ''wants to decide each case as it comes before him," Senator Ben Nelson, Democrat of Nebraska, told reporters after meeting with Alito yesterday.

Nelson did not say he would vote for Alito, whose long judicial record is being scrutinized by Democrats.

Senator Lindsey O. Graham, a South Carolina Republican who met with Alito yesterday, described him as ''one of the most seasoned people this nation has to offer." He said ideology alone was not a sufficient reason to mount a filibuster.

''If we start having filibusters over ideological differences, judicial philosophy differences, I think we're going to erode the quality of people who want to be judges," Graham said.

Senator Mike DeWine, Republican of Ohio and a member of the Gang of 14, said on Tuesday that he was ''very impressed" with Alito and suggested he would not sanction a filibuster.

Liberal and abortion rights groups are gearing up for a heated battle over Alito, a conservative judge who, in a dissenting opinion, backed a Pennsylvania law that required a woman to inform her husband before she had an abortion. That law was struck down by the US Supreme Court.

Democrats who have met with Alito pledged yesterday to press him on issues, including why conservative groups were so quick to applaud his nomination.

Democrats understand that Bush would pick a fellow conservative to be on the high court, said Senator Richard J. Durbin, Democrat of Illinois. But he said he wanted to be sure Alito would not manipulate the law to further a political agenda. ''The question is, What kind of conservative? Is it conservative with an agenda, or conservative with an open mind?" Durbin said, adding that it is too early to talk about a possible filibuster.

Leahy said he was also concerned that Alito would be beholden to the right wing of the Republican Party.

But even if Democrats wanted to mount a filibuster, the reluctance shown by several members of the Gang of 14 suggests it would be difficult for them to succeed. The group, made up of seven Republicans and seven Democrats, formed earlier this year to avert an institutional crisis in the Senate over filibusters.

Frustrated at the Democrats' successful filibuster of a handful of Bush judicial nominees, GOP leaders threatened to change longstanding Senate policy and ban filibusters of judicial nominees. The minority Democrats objected, and some Republicans were also wary of the threat, knowing the GOP could find itself in the minority again someday and be unable to filibuster judicial nominees of a future Democratic president.

The Gang of 14, aware of the devastating impact the so-called nuclear option would have on relations between the two parties, made a pact to permit filibusters only in ''extraordinary circumstances."

The Alito nomination may be the first test of the unity of the Gang of 14, if any lawmaker suggests a filibuster.