Some Democrats suggested that Bush ask O'Connor to stay on for another term and elevate her to chief justice, a step they said would help unify the nation at a difficult time.

The death set off a round of telephone calls and frantic negotiations on Capitol Hill. Some Democrats had already been pressing for a postponement in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, and they used the chief justice's death to press their case for a delay at least until after the funeral.

"Out of respect for the memory of Chief Justice Rehnquist and in fairness to those whose lives that continue to be devastated by Katrina, the Senate should not commence a Supreme Court confirmation hearing this Tuesday," the Democratic leader, Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada, said in a statement Sunday afternoon. "A brief postponement will not disadvantage anyone."

But Republicans, sensing the Roberts confirmation within their grasp, initially resisted, saying opponents were seeking to drag out the confirmation with hopes of derailing it. They argued that Rehnquist, who once kept the court open during a blizzard that shut down every other government building in Washington, would want the hearings for Roberts, his former clerk, to proceed.

"You bet those hearings ought to go forward," said Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, in an interview on CNN's Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer. "I think Bill Rehnquist would be the first to say he wants them to go forward."

For conservative backers of Roberts, any delay poses a danger, giving opponents more time to raise questions and mount opposition. Even Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., the only member of the Judiciary Committee representing a hurricane-affected state, said there was no need to postpone.

But White House officials said they were not concerned by a delay and that there was still time for the hearings to be completed, conduct votes in the committee and on the Senate floor and to have Roberts sworn in by the start of the new term.

A spokesman for Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said only that a postponement was "under consideration" and would depend largely on funeral arrangements for the chief justice. "The real issue is consideration for the family," said the spokesman, Bill Reynolds.