The U.S. Senate voted 72-25 to end debate Monday afternoon on Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito. Sixteen Democrats and one independent joined 55 Republicans to invoke cloture. A final vote on Alito’s nomination will begin at 11 a.m. Tuesday.

AP: Senate Moves Alito Close to Confirmation

Watch it on C-SPAN 2: The U.S. Senate is about to vote to end debate on President George W. Bush’s nominee to the Supreme Court to replace Sandra Day O’Connor, Samuel Alito of New Jersey.

AP: Kennedy Leads Final Effort to Block Alito

It has been confirmed that Sen. John Kerry is trying to round up 41 votes to support a filibuster of Samuel Alito of New Jersey, President George W. Bush’s nominee to replace Sandra Day O’connor on the U.S. Supreme Court, according to CNN.

Three Democrats (Ben Nelson, Tim Johnson and Robert Byrd) support Alito. So right now, without the support of any Republicans, there are still 42 possible votes for a filibuster.

There are 4 moderate Republicans who should be targeted (Lincoln Chafee, Susan Collins, Olympia Snowe, and Ted Stevens).

Three Democrats (Mary Landrieu, Ken Salazar, and Dianne Feinstein) oppose Alito but also said they oppose a filibuster.

So the battle is on to persuade them that a vote against Alito is meaningless if they don’t support a filibuster, according to Democrats.Com.

The best way to persuade them would be for the Democratic leadership (Harry Reid, Dick Durbin, Chuck Schumer, Pat Leahy, and Debby Stabenow) and the five Presidential candidates (John Kerry, Hillary Clinton, Russ Feingold, Joe Biden, and Evan Bayh) to form a Emergency Save the Constitution Committee and enlist the support of pro-choice, pro-freedom, and pro-democracy activists in Louisiana, Colorado, and California to persuade their Senators to support a filibuster.

More details will be coming soon, but the activist Web site urges people to “keep calling the Alito 8!”

As galling as it may be for some readers to see how major mainstream media outlets are framing the Alito confirmation, the broader problem has been the failure of well-to-do liberals and progressive foundations to finance a media infrastructure that can act as a counterweight to the right-wing media machine, according to Robert Parry at ConsortiumNews.Com.

Needless to say again, here at The Locust Fork we agree…