SALT LAKE CITY — Utah Sens. Orrin Hatch and Mike Lee continue to tout U.S. Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch as the Senate gears up for a contentious political battle over the federal appellate judge's confirmation.

Hatch and Lee sided with majority Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee in the 11-9 vote Monday to send the nomination to the full Senate.

The vote sets the stage for a showdown likely Friday in which Gorsuch's confirmation isn't really in doubt. But it could have a long-lasting impact on the high court and the Senate.

Republicans denied President Barack Obama's nominee, Merrick Garland, a hearing last year. Democrats intend to filibuster to block the vote on Gorsuch, a move Hatch called "abysmal." The GOP, which holds a 52-48 majority, has vowed to change the Senate rules if necessary to get him through.

"The choice we face is between impartial or political judges, between judges who follow the law or those who attempt to control the law," Hatch told the committee.

He called Gorsuch a "superb" nominee who would be impartial, fair and open-minded.

Lee said he wonders how a judge who "many are decrying as so wildly out of the mainstream" could see 2,700 cases in his time on the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals and rule unanimously with his colleagues 97 percent of the time and in the majority 99 percent of the time.

"That is not the background of a judge who is not in the mainstream," Lee said.

During Monday's hearing, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., criticized Gorsuch's answers as "excruciatingly evasive." Leahy said he did nothing to allay fears that the judge would bring a partisan agenda to the high court. Leahy said Gorsuch shares an "anti-choice, anti-environment, pro-corporate" agenda with the far right.

Leahy said a GOP move to end filibusters of Supreme Court nominees would hurt the Senate but argued that he has to vote his conscience, even if it causes Republicans to change the rules.

"I cannot vote solely to protect an institution when the rights of hardworking Americans are at risk because I fear that the Senate I would be defending no longer exists," he said.

Three Democrats have already signaled they plan to vote for Gorsuch, giving him 55 of the 60 votes needed for confirmation.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has left the door open to invoking the "nuclear option" to change the Senate rules to require a simple majority of 51 votes to confirm a Supreme Court nominee if the Democrats filibuster.

Boyd Matheson, president of the Sutherland Institute, said he expects things to get "hot and heavy" in the days leading to the Senate vote because outside groups on both sides will raise millions of dollars to target specific senators.

"The left will do a fundraising campaign (saying) that if we allow Gorsuch to go through, it's the end of the republic as we know it. The right will say the Democrats are filibustering and obstructing, and if they block Judge Gorsuch it's going to be the end of the republic as we know it," he said.

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Matheson said using the nuclear option would have a major impact on the next Supreme Court nomination, which would be more likely to change the makeup of the court than Gorsuch replacing another conservative judge in Justice Antonin Scalia, who died last year.

Liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Justice Anthony Kennedy, often the swing voter, are the most likely to retire, and if a Republican occupies the White House then, the next nominee would push the court in a more conservative direction.

"I've wondered why the Democrats have pushed so hard this round because if they fire all their bullets on this one and force the nuclear option, they've all but assured that the next round is going to be even easier for the administration to push through" its next nominee, Matheson said.

But the nuclear option could also work against Republicans if Democrats take power in the future and nominate a left-leaning judge.

Hatch recognizes that but told CNN, "We can't let them just stop one of the best nominees that's ever been nominated to the Supreme Court because their far-left constituencies are screaming and shouting."

CNN anchor John Berman pressed Hatch on Republicans halting the nomination of Garland for political reasons and why it's not OK for Democrats to block Gorsuch for political reasons.

"Why is that not a double standard?" Berman asked.

“I'll tell you straight up that's total BS what you're saying there,” Hatch replied.

The senator added that nobody can show where a Supreme Court nomination was considered unless both sides agreed. Hatch said Garland is a "fine judge" but that he wasn't going to be looked at in a presidential year.

Hatch told reporters after the hearing that Democrats' threat of a filibuster is "abysmal" and "unworthy" of the Senate. If Gorsuch can't qualify as a Supreme Court justice, "who can qualify under their rules unless they meet all of their particular ideological bents?" he asked.

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