To no one’s surprise, the Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee who had not previously announced how they would vote on the Alito nomination now say they will oppose it, meaning Alito will be approved on a 10 to 8, party-line vote. “I am personally very sorry to see a party-line vote out of this committee,” chairman Arlen Specter said as he opened the meeting. But it was Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl who most eloquently laid out the consequences of a nearly-unified Democratic opposition. Observing, as many Republicans do, that GOP senators voted overwhelmingly for Clinton nominees Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer, Kyl said a turn away from that practice bodes ill for the future, including for Democrats:

I fear a very bad precedent is being set today, a precedent that a unanimous minority will oppose a nominee on political grounds, not because the nominee is in any way unqualified. Republicans did not apply that test to Justices Breyer or Ginsburg.
And I say precedent because it is simply unrealistic to think that one party will put itself at a disadvantage by eschewing political considerations while the other party almost unanimously applies such considerations.
So I say to my Democratic friends, think carefully about what is being done today. Its impact will be felt well beyond this particular nominee.