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WASHINGTON — The possibility of a Democratic filibuster against Supreme Court nominee John Roberts in the Republican-controlled Senate seemed to all but disappear yesterday.

One influential Democrat said Roberts was "in the ballpark" of being a nonconfrontational selection. A Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, which will hold hearings on Roberts' nomination, said she did not think the appeals court judge was "filibuster-able."

After meeting President Bush at the White House yesterday, Roberts headed to Capitol Hill for the ritual of courtesy calls, while Republican operatives began TV advertising to push the Senate to approve the appellate judge. Bush called for a "fair and civil process" that will put Roberts on the bench by the time the court reconvenes Oct. 3.

At the same time, an array of interest groups on the left began mobilizing opposition to Roberts, and abortion-rights groups staged protests against him at the Supreme Court and the Capitol.

But the Senate's Democratic leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, said he had not heard any senators in his party mention filibustering Roberts.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., a strong abortion-rights supporter and a Judiciary Committee member, said: "Do I believe this is a filibuster-able nominee? The answer would be no, not at this time I don't."

Several of the seven Republicans among the "Gang of 14" senators who brokered a deal over judicial filibusters indicated they thought a filibuster against Roberts would be unwarranted.

Two Republicans in the group, John McCain of Arizona and John Warner of Virginia, said the Roberts selection would not trigger the "extraordinary circumstances" clause of the agreement that would justify a Democratic filibuster.

"I think that Judge Roberts deserves an up-or-down vote, and I hope that the other members of that group agree with me," McCain said.

Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., said the 14 senators had asked Bush to send the Senate a mainstream conservative. "And it appears at first look that Judge Roberts is that," he said.

Roberts is "in the ballpark of a nonconfrontational nominee," Lieberman added.

Retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor has said she will stay on the court until a new justice is confirmed. Republicans believe Roberts is more conservative than O'Connor, the first female justice. They would prefer to have him voting on close cases than O'Connor, who has been the swing vote in several 5-4 decisions.

O'Connor didn't learn of the nomination of Roberts until she heard about it on the radio while returning to Spokane, Wash., from a fishing trip.

"I have watched Judge Roberts since he has been an advocate before our court, and I and my colleagues have been enormously impressed with his scholarship and his skills," O'Connor said yesterday. "He's earned an excellent reputation as a lawyer, so I think he's very well-qualified.

"I am disappointed, in a sense, to see the percentage of women on our court drop by 50 percent, but I can't be disappointed in the quality of person nominated. He's first rate."

Roberts, who served in the Reagan and first Bush administrations and earned a reputation as one of the most successful lawyers in the Supreme Court bar, was appointed by the current president to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in 2003.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa.. said he anticipates hearings on Roberts' nomination in early September after the August recess, although he added that they could be moved up to late August. He promised "extensive hearings" and predicted that Roberts "will have the answers" to senators' questions.

White House officials and Republican strategists exuded confidence, saying they had found the most confirmable conservative. "I think he's ultimately going to sail through," said Jay Sekulow, chief counsel to the American Center for Law and Justice who has been advising the White House on court strategy.

"There'll be a battle because all Supreme Court nominations are battles, but this is not a holy war," said Kenneth Duberstein, a Reagan White House chief of staff who steered the past two Republican nominations onto the court for President George H.W. Bush. "I don't think the passion from the far left will be felt by all these Democratic senators."

But Democrats stressed that Roberts, 50, could spend 30 or more years on the court and that it is essential to scrutinize his record and philosophies. "A preliminary review of Judge Roberts' record suggests areas of significant concern that need exploration," Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the Judiciary Committee's top Democrat, said in a floor speech. "We need to know what kind of Supreme Court justice John Roberts would be."

The Associated Press and the Washington Post contributed to this report.