WASHINGTON -- A last-minute filibuster against Supreme Court nominee Samuel A. Alito Jr. failed by a wide margin yesterday, setting the stage for a vote today to confirm him as successor to Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.

After a fourth day of floor debate on the nomination, the clerk of the Senate called the roll shortly after 4:30 p.m. As senators milled around the chamber, chatting and backslapping, the votes gradually piled up, resulting in a final tally of 72 votes in favor of ending debate -- 12 more than necessary -- and 25 against.

The 72 votes in favor included 19 Democrats, some of whom have indicated that they will vote against Judge Alito's nomination today. It also included Sen. Lincoln Chaffee, R-R.I., the only Republican who had said he would vote against Judge Alito.

Twenty-four Democrats voted against cloture, as did Sen. Jim Jeffords, an Independent from Vermont.

Although yesterday's outcome was never in doubt, Sens. John F. Kerry and Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., delivered fiery exhortations in favor of continued debate.

Calling Judge Alito "the wrong judge at the wrong time for the wrong court," Mr. Kennedy said extra time for debate was necessary because "our constituents are just getting focused on this."

Mr. Kerry alluded to an agreement in May in which a bipartisan group of senators known as the Gang of 14 agreed that judicial nominations should be filibustered only in "extraordinary circumstances."

"I really believe this nomination is an extraordinary circumstance," Mr. Kerry went on. "What could possibly be more important than an entire shift in the direction of the Supreme Court of the United States?"

But Republicans ridiculed the filibuster, saying that Democrats were obsessed with abortion and under the sway of liberal interest groups.

Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., the chairman of the Judiciary Committee and an abortion-rights supporter, said before the vote that Judge Alito had gone as far as he could to reassure supporters of Roe v. Wade, the court decision legalizing abortion, that he would respect that precedent.

"On the critical question of a woman's right to choose, his testimony was virtually identical to that of Chief Justice [John] Roberts," Mr. Specter said.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., crowed about the failure of the filibuster even before the cloture vote was taken.

Noting that Democrats had filibustered 10 of President Bush's judicial nominees before the Gang of 14 agreement, Mr. Frist said the progress of the Alito nomination proved that Republicans had been right to threaten the so-called "nuclear option," which, through a change in Senate rules, would have killed filibusters of judicial nominations.

The effort to mount a filibuster against Judge Alito came late in the nomination process and was announced last week by Mr. Kerry while he was attending the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Although some Democratic senators signed on to the campaign for symbolic reasons, few held out hope that it could succeed.

With the cloture hurdle cleared, the Senate will vote at 11 a.m. today on the Alito nomination with Judge Alito expected to get at least 57 votes, more than the required majority. The timing of the vote will allow the judge from New Jersey to be sworn in in time to attend President Bush's State of the Union address tonight with other justices.

All the senators from Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia voted in favor of cloture.