How Bush Made the Call

Here's Bartlett: "The [meeting] with Judge Roberts was -- had some other logistical hurdles. He was actually teaching a class in London with the -- an international trade class in London. He had to cancel his class Friday and today and has been shuttling back and forth across the pond to have these meetings. So I can only imagine he's a bit jet lagged, but in great spirits and obviously honored for -- with this -- with this awesome responsibility and looks forward to the process."

Bush spoke to Roberts for an hour, and found "a person he felt that not only had a sharp legal mind, but also had the type of character and judgment that he was looking for in a candidate for office," Bartlett said.

"[H]e wanted to be in a comfortable environment in the Residence. The sitting areas up on the personal residence floor of the White House, really right outside of where the President and Mrs. Bush -- in their most intimate quarters. And Barney and Beazley are -- they're laying at their feet, and they're having -- and they were able to have a great conversation both at a personal level, as well as -- and professional. It was professional. And I'm not going to be able to get into the details of the questions, but it was wide-ranging."

McClellan said Bush "essentially had made his decision" by Monday night. "There were a couple of issues that still needed to be addressed, and those were, essentially, by this morning. And so a final decision was really made this morning by the President, and the President began talking to the Vice President and some of his senior staff during that -- after this morning time period.

"Then the President had his meeting with [Australian] Prime Minister [John] Howard, and they had the press availability. Following that, the President and Prime Minister Howard were joined by their spouses, Mrs. Howard and Mrs. Bush. And they headed upstairs to have lunch in the Residence. And this was a little bit before 12:30 p.m. when they headed upstairs. And then at approximately 12:35 p.m., the President stepped out of the lunch to call Judge Roberts and offer him the nomination.

"The President returned to the lunch after that conversation. And this is a quote from the President, he told those that were gathered there, Prime Minister and Mrs. Howard and Mrs. Bush. The President said, 'I just offered the job to a great, smart, 50-year-old lawyer who has agreed to serve on the bench.' And then a short time ago, about 7:00 p.m., the President and Mrs. Bush were joined by Judge Roberts and his wife over in the Residence for dinner. And I think it was a little bit after 7:30 p.m. when the President made some outreach calls to members of the Senate. The President called Senators Frist, Specter, Reid, and Leahy -- I believe in that order -- and informed them of his decision. And that's a quick overview of the tick-tock."

But What Did They Talk About?

One of the huge advantages that President Bush has, of course, is that he was presumably able to ask Roberts all sorts of questions in private that Roberts has never answered in public. Bartlett waved off questions about that last night -- though he didn't deny it, either.

"Q Can you say if the President raised issues in the interviews about issues that come before the Court, issues like abortion or same-sex marriage, or did he deliberately avoid those?

"MR. BARTLETT: Well, Mark, he has been very clear that he was not going to have a litmus test on the issues that you mentioned, that it was important that a judge who was going -- potentially going to have to be ruling on those very issues to not be opining on them before hand. That's one thing the President has been proud about is that he has not imposed a litmus test and we would hope that others would do the same.

"Obviously, in a confirmation process, people can ask any question they want, but I think as Justice Ginsberg and others have proven, the appropriate action for them to take is to not answer those type of questions. And, as I said, the President doesn't have a litmus test."

Bartlett on the Timing

"Q Dan, did the timing of this announcement today have anything at all to do with all the intense focus on Karl Rove and the leak investigation?

"MR. BARTLETT: I'm glad you -- I omitted discussing that, and I appreciate you giving me the opportunity to talk about that. They recess next Friday, the Senate does. If you don't get all your stuff done -- packets of material have to get up there, consultations. We have 16 members of the Judiciary Committee alone, other leadership, other members of the Senate, courtesy visits. You just think about logistically getting the nominee in this tight time period. If we would have waited until the last two days of the month or so, we would have not have been able to officially get his name into the process, which then would allow for hearings on the back end, which is obviously a topic we'll be consulting with the Senate on, when those will take place.