Speculation

Speculation has mounted over the Bush Nominee to fill Justice O'Connor's vacancy on the Supreme Court.

When asked about reports that the nominee would be revealed this afternoon, Scott McClellan, President Bush's chief spokesman, offered only this terse comment at a morning meeting with journalists: "The president is closer today than he was yesterday on naming a nominee."

Administration officials said on Monday that the selection process was moving far faster than they had expected. They also said that Mr. Bush's remarks on Monday morning in an East Room news conference, in which the president suggested that he would take more time to interview candidates, did not rule out a quick announcement.

Republicans close to the White House said that a leading candidate to succeed Justice Sandra Day O'Connor was Judge Edith Brown Clement of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, based in New Orleans.

At the moment, eyes are on Clement- a supposed moderate, but more precisely, an unknown to liberals, and to some degree, to conservatives as well. [scroll down on the Slate link.]

Of course, the Justice's nomination is big news. And The Administration knows it. They're also running into difficulties making the Rove leak story fall from the sky, like all the other scandals they've helmed their way through. The need a story; and they need to create that story.

Later in the NYT piece:

Both Republicans and Democrats said that a nomination announcement in the next few days could push the news of Karl Rove and a federal investigation into who leaked the name of a C.I.A. officer off the front pages, a development that would be highly welcome at the White House. Mr. Rove, Mr. Bush's senior adviser, has been named by two reporters as a source of the leak, a potential crime.

"A nomination would certainly change the momentum in Washington," said Kenneth M. Duberstein, who managed the Supreme Court nominations of Clarence Thomas and David H. Souter for Mr. Bush's father.