Parties Gear Up for High Court Battle

"Obviously, if there is a vacancy, we are prepared for that scenario, like any White House," press secretary Scott McClellan told a briefing Thursday without elaborating. "We have made preparations to be ready in case someone does leave the Supreme Court. At this point, no one has."

A court nomination would further complicate Bush's efforts to push through his stalled domestic program, including changes in Social Security, liberalized immigration rules, a Central American free-trade pact, energy legislation and the nomination of John R. Bolton as U.N. ambassador.

"It'll be the big story," Republican strategist Charles Black said of a court nomination. How big, he added, depends on Bush's choice and the Democrats' response.

A senior White House official put it this way: "It paralyzes everything else." The official insisted on anonymity because no vacancy has been announced.

Whether it will happen remained mostly guesswork yesterday. Rehnquist has stayed publicly mum. Although some people who saw him at a reunion of former clerks were struck by how his health has deteriorated, congressional leaders who saw him at a recent lunch said the chief justice seemed stronger.

If Rehnquist has made a decision, it is unclear whether he has told the White House. Rove and others who participated in the strategy session on Friday characterized it as a precaution, according to Republicans, rather than confirmation that an opening is certain.

The president's public schedule for the week also seemed to send mixed signals. The White House announced that Bush will travel to North Carolina tomorrow for a nationally televised speech on Iraq, suggesting he does not expect to be introducing a nominee the day after the Supreme Court term ends. At the same time, the White House kept Wednesday's schedule clear, perhaps reserving it to announce a nomination after letting Rehnquist enjoy his day in the sun if he were to retire today.

"It really is like Kremlinology or the picking of a pope," said Sean Rushton, executive director of the Committee for Justice, a group established to support Bush's judicial nominations. "Everyone's reading the smallest signals. We're acting as if it's going to happen. . . . A lot of people are working through the weekend to make sure they've got their ducks in a row."

Rushton said his group is updating biographies of prospective nominees, getting news releases ready, preparing e-mail lists and media contacts. Across town, his rivals at the liberal People for the American Way were doing much the same. Ralph G. Neas, the group's president, said it sent 1 million e-mail and regular mail messages last week, and has about two dozen draft news releases ready to issue, depending on what happens.

The group and its allies have set up a 2,500-square-foot war room with 40 work stations and 75 phone lines, and signed up Democratic heavyweights such as former Clinton White House press secretary Joe Lockhart and former Gore strategist Carter Eskew to run the effort. "It's a presidential campaign-caliber team," Neas said, as about 10 fellow workers gathered for meetings.

"It's certainly the conventional wisdom that something's going to happen and it's going to happen soon," he added. "But . . . the conventional wisdom can be wrong."