WASHINGTON — When President Bush accepted Harriet E. Miers' withdrawal as a Supreme Court candidate Thursday, the air immediately filled with fresh advice.
Republican lawmakers and conservative activists called on Bush to return to the model of his previous nominee -- new Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. -- and choose a conservative judge with stellar credentials and an intellectual bent.
"He has to go strongly for credentials," Republican pollster David Winston said. "Whoever he chooses is someone that everyone has to look at and, while they may disagree ideologically, in terms of credentials is seen as unassailable. Like the guy Bush picked for the Fed," he said, referring to Ben S. Bernanke, a well-received Princeton economist.
Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) said he hoped "the president puts forward a well-qualified, conservative jurist with a clear legal philosophy, just like he talked about during the campaign."
Bush is seeking a successor for retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, the court's swing vote on abortion and other hotly contested issues.
One name mentioned often Thursday was Judge Michael W. McConnell, 50, a scholarly former law professor whom Bush put on the U.S. Court of Appeals in Denver. He is a favorite of religious conservatives and won the support of more than 200 legal academics, some of them liberals, when he was chosen as a judge.
He is "exceptionally well-qualified" and would be "hard to demonize" because he has a friendly demeanor and an academic manner, said Boston University law professor Randy E. Barnett, a libertarian.
"He is the closest to Roberts" and "definitely would be confirmed," predicted Drake University law professor Dennis Goldford.
Others pointed to Judge Diane Sykes, 48, a former Wisconsin Supreme Court judge who had a tough law-and-order record. She won the support of the state's two Democratic senators when Bush named her to the U.S. Court of Appeals in Chicago.
Judge Alice Batchelder, 61, a veteran conservative judge on the U.S. appeals court in Ohio, is favored by conservative activist Paul M. Weyrich. "She's got an excellent record and is very solid," he said.
Still another favorite of some conservatives close to the White House is Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr., 55, who serves on the U.S. Court of Appeals in Philadelphia.
