On another thread there was a statement that Gallop had public support for Alito's confirmation at 66%. The red-state Democratic senators up for reelection this fall are just gonna love spending the fall explaining why they are in the party of Windbag Ted and Jenjis John.
The Republicans have in no way cleared the way for a vote for Alito. The Democrats are just stalling the filibuster until they can get enough calls and emails to use as an excuse for the filibuster. They will then say that they were forced to do it because Alito is so far out of the mainstream that their constituents demanded the filibuster.