US: President George Bush may not announce his nominee for the vacancy on the US Supreme Court until late in the summer, after interviewing prospective justices himself, it emerged yesterday.
Mr Bush also forcefully defended a likely favourite, his attorney general Alberto Gonzales, who has been criticised by conservatives as not sufficiently anti-abortion. "Al Gonzales is a great friend of mine," Mr Bush told USA Today. "When a friend gets attacked, I don't like it."
As special interest groups organise their campaigns to influence both the president and the Senate, which must approve his nomination, Mr Bush appealed to them to "tone down the heated rhetoric". The president had been expected to announce his choice to fill the vacancy created by Judge Sandra Day O'Connor as early as next Monday on his return from the G8 summit in Scotland.
However, he told USA Today: "I will begin to home in on a handful of candidates over the course of the next few weeks." After that he would interview them himself, he said.
Asked whether women and minorities were on his list, Mr Bush said: "Of course, there's a diverse group of citizens", adding that he was considering "a good-sized" number of prospects.
Whoever he picked, the Senate was probably in for "a pretty partisan battle", said Republican senator Orrin Hatch of Utah yesterday. "The president is going to choose a conservative," he told ABC television, but added: "I don't think he's going to choose a right-wing conservative."
The more conservative the nominee, the more likely that Democrats will turn to a filibuster to block the nomination, observers say. Mr Bush's choice of Mr Gonzales could prevent a filibuster as he has been approved twice by the Senate.
A group of Democrat and Republican senators have done a deal on judicial nominations under which Democrats will only filibuster in exceptional circumstances.
Mr Bush said that during his first term he would want to fill a vacancy on the Supreme Court with a judge who would strictly interpret the constitution and "not use the bench to write social policy".
He has also said he admires justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, the two most conservative judges on the nine-member Supreme Court bench, both opposed to legalised abortion and affirmative action.
With the fervour and dedication of a presidential campaign, partisans are raising millions of dollars for what could be the most expensive nomination fight ever. Progress for America, which spent $45 million to help get President Bush a second term, has a war chest of $18 million to push for a conservative nominee.
Other conservative groups, such as the Family Research Council, have promised to commit millions to the cause. Progress for America is preparing sympathetic biographies of possible conservative choices to counter what it expects will be an onslaught of criticism by the left.
On the left, the prospect of the court tilting to the right with the confirmation of a nominee more conservative than Sandra Day O'Connor, who has upheld abortion rights, has galvanised activ- ists.
The People for the American Way group is asking for donations, warning that "the stakes could hardly be higher" as "the odds are Bush will appoint someone who threatens our rights and liberties".
MoveOn.org is asking supporters to provide their mobile numbers so it can text them the moment Mr Bush announces his nominee. "What happens next will either destroy or protect our most basic rights for decades to come," it warns.