WASHINGTON  Solicitor General Elena Kagan moved one step closer to becoming a Supreme Court justice on Tuesday when the Senate Judiciary Committee voted 13 to 6, almost entirely along party lines, to forward her nomination to the full Senate for consideration.

Just one Republican, Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, broke ranks with his party to back Ms. Kagan. His lengthy speech supporting her led to debate about the Senate’s increasingly partisan approach to judicial confirmations, as he took colleagues  including President Obama when he was a senator  to task for basing their votes on philosophy, rather than qualifications and character.

“No one spent more time trying to beat President Obama than I did, except maybe Senator McCain,” Mr. Graham said, referring to his work trying to elect Mr. Obama’s Republican rival in 2008. “I missed my own election. I voted absentee. But I understood  we lost; President Obama won. The Constitution in my view puts a requirement on me not to replace my judgment for his.”

In suggesting that presidents deserve great deference, Mr. Graham seemed to offer the Senate a path back to the days when Supreme Court nominees were approved unanimously, or close to it.