Oct. 3 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. President George W. Bush chose White House Counsel Harriet Miers, a fellow Texan and longtime confidant who has never served as a judge, to succeed swing vote Sandra Day O'Connor on the Supreme Court.

Miers, 60, would help determine the court's direction on abortion, affirmative action, gay rights and congressional power, issues on which O'Connor often cast the pivotal vote. She would become the third woman ever to sit on the high court.

``She has devoted her life to the rule of law and the cause of justice,'' Bush, with Miers at his side, said today in the Oval Office in Washington. ``She will be an outstanding addition to the Supreme Court of the United States.''

The selection of Miers may avert a showdown with Senate Democrats, who had threatened to block a vote if the White House chose a hard-line conservative. Both Democratic and Republican senators suggested Miers as a possible nominee in meetings with Bush, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said. Miers would join Ruth Bader Ginsburg as the court's only women.

Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid, who met with Bush Sept. 21, called Miers ``a trailblazer for women'' in her career as a Texas attorney. He said the court ``would benefit from the addition of a justice who has real experience as a practicing lawyer.''

Still, Democrats will face a challenge in assessing Miers, who built her career on giving private advice rather than making public pronouncements. She is the first Supreme nominee with no prior judicial experience since 1971, when Lewis Powell and William Rehnquist were appointed.

Democrats likely will question Miers about her efforts to rescind the American Bar Association position favoring abortion rights in the 1990s.

Conservatives Split

The announcement came just hours before new Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. presided over his first Supreme Court session across town. Roberts was confirmed last week by a 78-22 vote, with the backing of all 55 Republicans, 22 Democrats and one independent.

The Miers nomination drew mixed reactions from conservatives. Leonard Leo, who is on leave from serving as executive vice president of the conservative Federalist Society in Washington, called her a ``judicial conservative'' who will ``heed the founders' vision of the role of courts in our constitutional system.''

Manuel Miranda, executive director of the a Washington-based conservative advocacy group, the Third Branch Conference, said he will support Miers only reluctantly.

Many conservatives will view Miers as ``possibly the most unqualified choice'' since President Lyndon Johnson selected his longtime adviser Abe Fortas almost 40 years ago, Miranda said. Fortas, who served four years as an associate justice, resigned over conflict-of-interest allegations after Johnson tried to elevate him to chief justice.

`Pit Bull'

``The nomination of a nominee with no judicial record is a significant failure for the advisers that the White House gathered around it,'' Miranda said in an e-mailed statement.

Bush once described Miers as ``a pit bull in size 6 shoes.'' She has known the president since the 1980s and worked as a lawyer on his 1994 gubernatorial campaign. Much like Vice President Dick Cheney before his selection as Bush's running mate in 2000, Miers led the president's search for a new justice before Bush chose her from a crowded field of contenders.

Miers said in the Oval Office that she has ``great respect and admiration for the genius that inspired our Constitution and our system of government.''

Miers was the first woman president of the Dallas Bar Association and the first woman to be elected president of the Texas State Bar. She was on the National Law Journal's list of most powerful lawyers in 1997 and 2000.

She once was a donor to Democratic causes, according to PoliticalMoneyLine, a Washington-based company that tracks campaign finance disclosures. She gave $1,000 each in 1988 to Al Gore's presidential campaign, Lloyd Bentsen's U.S. Senate campaign and the Democratic National Committee.

Could Have Been

``My first reaction is a simple one,'' Senator Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat who voted against Roberts, told reporters in Washington. ``It could have been a lot worse.''

In talks with fellow Democrats this morning, Schumer said most were optimistic about the choice.

Miers received her undergraduate and law degrees at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. She was a litigator in Texas for 26 years, rising to co-managing partner of Locke Liddell & Sapp in Dallas. She was elected to a two-year term on the Dallas City Council in 1989.

Bush, as Texas governor, tapped Miers to lead the Texas Lottery Commission in 1995. She came with Bush to Washington when he was elected in 2000, serving first as his staff secretary, then as deputy chief of staff.

To contact the reporter on this story: Greg Stohr in Washington at gstohr@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: October 3, 2005 11:16 EDT