WASHINGTON – President Bush nominated veteran judge Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court on Monday, seeking to shift the judiciary to the right and mollify conservatives who derailed his previous pick. Democrats said Alito may curb abortion rights and be “too radical for the American people.”

Drawing an unspoken contrast to failed nominee Harriet Miers, Bush declared that the appeals court judge “has more prior judicial experience than any Supreme Court nominee in more than 70 years.”

Abortion emerged as a potential fault line. Democrats pointed to Alito’s rulings that sought to restrict a woman’s right to abortion. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, a Republican who supports abortion rights, said Alito’s views on the hot-button issue “will be among one of the first items Judge Alito and I will discuss.”

Alito’s mother shed some light. “Of course, he’s against abortion,” 90-year-old Rose Alito said of her son, a Catholic.

Alito, 55, newly installed Chief Justice John Roberts, 50, and the more than 200 other federal judges Bush has pushed through the Senate could give the Republican president a legacy far beyond his two terms.

In a political twist, Republicans who helped sink Miers’ nomination rallied to Alito. A leading Democrat who backed Miers led the attack on Alito.

“The Senate needs to find out if the man replacing Miers is too radical for the American people,” said Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada. A rare Democratic senator who opposes abortion, Reid chided Bush for not nominating the first Hispanic to the court.

“President Bush would leave the Supreme Court looking less like America and more like an old boys club,” Reid said.

So consistently conservative, Alito has been dubbed “Scalito” or “Scalia-lite” by some lawyers because his judicial philosophy invites comparisons to conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. But while Scalia is outspoken and is known to badger lawyers, Alito is polite, reserved and even-tempered.

The fight to nominate Alito, a judge on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals since 1990, is one step in Bush’s political recovery plan as he tries to regain his footing after a cascade of troubles – including the Iraq war and the indictment of the vice president’s chief of staff – rocked his presidency.

If confirmed by the Senate, Alito would replace retiring justice Sandra Day O’Connor, a swing vote in cases involving affirmative action, abortion, campaign finance, discrimination and the death penalty.