ConfirmThem

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Robert Novak has the latest:

The president will have to act quickly if the high court's current session ends today with a resignation. Justice Sandra Day O'Connor now is considered more likely to quit than ailing Chief Justice William Rehnquist. White House leaks describe Gonzales as the leading prospect for either vacancy.

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Conservatives fear Gonzales will be another in a long line of justices who have proved more liberal than the president who appointed them expected -- John Paul Stevens, O'Connor, Anthony Kennedy, David Souter. That is a view widely held inside the White House, but not by the occupant who counts most. Bush loves Gonzales.

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While Bush would consider replacing one of the court's two women with its first Hispanic justice, neither Roberts nor Luttig for O'Connor would be politically correct. Accordingly, White House judge-hunters are looking for a woman. They have interviewed Appellate Judge Edith Brown Clement (5th Circuit, New Orleans), a conservative who flies under the radar.

Also, the LA Times had this yesterday:

The White House list also includes Judge Emilio M. Garza, 57, of the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans. He is a conservative Roman Catholic of Mexican heritage who served in the Marine Corps. First appointed by Reagan, he was briefly considered for the Supreme Court by President George H.W. Bush in 1991. Since then, he has written opinions that are skeptical of the right to abortion set in Roe vs. Wade.

Though Garza is rarely mentioned as a leading candidate, Washington attorney Tom Goldstein, a regular advocate before the Supreme Court and a Washington legal insider, calls him "definitely the most likely choice" because he fits ideally with what the Bush White House is seeking.

Garza would be much preferred over Gonzales by the Republican base, as a successor to Justice O'Connor, IMHO. Info about each of the leading SCOTUS candidates is linked over at the right-hand-side of the confirmthem page (not surprisingly, under the heading "SCOTUS Candidates"). If a woman is what the White House is looking for, Judge Edith Jones would be great, and she would be excellent even if they're not looking for a woman.