Taking On the Supreme Court Case

The office of the vice president took the lead in developing a strategic communications plan to sell Roberts to the public and to the senators who would vote to confirm him. Then, in early September, Rehnquist died. The president moved Roberts to chief justice. That still left another vacancy, one that would give Bush the opportunity to definitively shift the court to the right.

And that is when the president departed from the list.

First, Bush openly speculated about making his longtime friend and aide Alberto R. Gonzales the first Hispanic on the court. Conservatives, who saw the attorney general as insufficiently devoted to their cause on issues such as affirmative action and abortion mobilized against the former Texas judge, slipping intelligence on Gonzales's background to Cheney's office.

"In general, on Supreme Court judicial selection issues, conservatives would talk to Karl Rove but also would make sure to communicate expectations to the office of the vice president," said Leonard A. Leo, a conservative leader who was involved in the nomination process.

Conservatives got their way on Gonzales, only to find themselves confronted with what many considered an even worse choice. On Oct. 2, White House Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr. was dispatched to tell Cheney that Bush had nominated White House counsel Harriet E. Miers, another longtime Texas associate, to fill the Supreme Court vacancy. "Didn't have the nerve to tell me himself," Cheney muttered to an associate in a rare display of pique with the president.

Cheney's office disputed that account. "The vice president did not say that," said his spokeswoman, Lea Anne McBride.

In any case, Cheney did as he often does when he disagrees with a policy decision by the president -- he loyally defended it. Within hours of the announcement the following day, he was on the air reassuring conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh. "You'll be proud of Harriet's record, Rush," he said. "Trust me."

"It's fair to say that he wasn't thrilled by that nomination," said one former senior White House official. "But he's a good trouper."

In the end, Miers was forced to withdraw amid a firestorm of criticism from the right. Bush then nominated Alito, a white male federal appellate judge. This time, he stuck to the Cheney committee's list.

-- Jo Becker and Barton Gellman