The current vote count stands as follows:

All 55 Senate Republicans are expected to vote for John Roberts' confirmation as Supreme Court chief justice. The 44 Democrats are less unified, and independent James Jeffords of Vermont has not given his position.

Democrats who have announced their support for Roberts (12):

Bill Nelson of Florida, Ben Nelson of Nebraska, Mark Pryor of Arkansas, Tim Johnson of South Dakota, Max Baucus of Montana, Robert Byrd of West Virginia, Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico, Kent Conrad of North Dakota, Patrick Leahy of Vermont, Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, Herb Kohl of Wisconsin and Ken Salazar of Colorado.

Democrats who have announced their opposition (14):

Harry Reid of Nevada, Barbara Boxer of California, John Kerry of Massachusetts, Jon Corzine of New Jersey, Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey, Barack Obama of Illinois, Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, Evan Bayh of Indiana, Mark Dayton of Minnesota, Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, Joseph Biden of Delaware, Dianne Feinstein of California, Charles Schumer of New York and Dick Durbin of Illinois.

Thursday has been set as the day of voting.

There are rumors that Karl Rove is pushing for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to become the O'Connor SCOTUS replacement, and the concern over that is significant.

Earlier it was thought that Priscilla Owen would be the likely nominee.