Supreme Court battle lines forming

WASHINGTON — Many of President Bush's conservative supporters lined up in staunch opposition Saturday to the candidate he might personally most want to name to the Supreme Court, his longtime friend and adviser, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, as battle lines were drawn for selection of the first new justice in more than a decade.

Bush has long been intrigued by the idea of making Gonzales the first Hispanic on the Supreme Court, according to advisers, a prospect that might seem especially tempting in replacing Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, the court's first woman. But a range of activists and congressional Republicans warned the White House against the move, saying they do not consider Gonzales a steadfast conservative.

"We would oppose him because we don't believe he has a philosophy that we can determine. We are not enthused," said Tom Minnery, vice president of public policy for Focus on the Family, a conservative advocacy group. "He is someone who is apparently still developing his philosophy, and that's not good enough," Minnery added, citing Gonzales' "lack of open commitment to interpret the Constitution as it was written."

The surge of pressure after O'Connor's retirement announcement Friday reflected the brief but intense struggle that will play out in Republican circles in coming days. Bush leaves Tuesday for an international summit in Europe and does not plan to name a nominee until the week of July 11 at the earliest, leaving Republicans a short time to influence his decision. If the broader nomination battle will resemble a presidential campaign, as both sides predict, then the next week or two could amount to a primary.

While some focused on who Bush's choice will be, others mapped out strategy for the period after he decides. Senate Republicans made plans to begin hearings as quickly as possible after the nomination, focused not on the candidate's positions on hot-button issues but on legal credentials.

A Republican planning document provided to The Washington Post described the need to avoid disclosing the nominee's "personal political views or legal thinking on any issue."

Democrats, by contrast, prepared a campaign to extend the process and portray anyone Bush selects as outside the mainstream. The liberal People for the American Way moved to claim O'Connor's mantle with a new television commercial that flashes her image and demands that Bush pick someone in her pragmatic tradition who "protects our fundamental rights and freedoms" or risk dividing the country.