Alito, who has met privately with more than 80 senators since his October nomination, thanked ''all of the senators who supported me and were kind enough to meet with me."
The New Jersey jurist was chosen by President Bush to be the replacement for retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.
''I call on the United States Senate to put partisanship aside and give Judge Alito the up-or-down vote he deserves," Bush said at the White House, ''and confirm him as the next associate justice of the Supreme Court."
Alito has enough support from 51 Republicans and a Democrat, Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska, to assure his confirmation.
With the rest of Democrats showing little interest in a filibuster, the 100-member Senate is expected to make it official with a majority vote before Bush's State of the Union address on Jan. 31.
''We're on the final leg," Frist, Republican of Tennessee, told Alito before congratulating the 55-year-old judge from the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
The Judiciary Committee advanced Alito's nomination Tuesday on a party-line vote, with all of the Republicans voting for him and all of the Democrats voting against him.
He is not the first Supreme Court justice to have received a partisan vote from the committee. Justice Louis D. Brandeis, who served on the court from 1916 to 1941, also was voted out of committee along party lines.
''I'm certainly in good company, if that's the case," Alito said.
Alito also may be on his way to the most partisan victory for a Supreme Court nominee in years. The closest vote margin for a Supreme Court justice in modern history was that for Justice Clarence Thomas's 52-to-48 victory in 1991. In that vote, 11 Democrats broke with their party and voted for President George H.W. Bush's nominee.
The Democratic caucus split on John G. Roberts Jr. last year, who is now the chief justice. Twenty-two caucus members voted for him, and 22 against him.
But liberals are working to get a large opposition vote to score points against Bush and rally supporters for the midterm elections.
Twenty-two Democrats have announced that they are voting against Alito. Senators Jack Reed of Rhode Island and Hillary Clinton of New York are expected to announce their decision today.
Democrats have argued that putting Alito on the court in the place of O'Connor, who was a swing vote on many contentious social issues, including abortion, affirmative action, and the death penalty, would put Americans' rights and liberties in danger.
Four Republicans, 21 Democrats, and Senator James M. Jeffords of Vermont, an Independent, were still publicly undecided yesterday or refused to say how they would vote on Alito's nomination. Senators Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia and Patty Murray of Washington, who met with him yesterday, did not announce how they would vote.
