July 12 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. Senate leaders urged President George W. Bush to go ``outside the judicial monastery'' and consider a politician or lawyer for the U.S. Supreme Court. The Senate's top Democrat said Bush sounded receptive to finding a ``consensus candidate.''

Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist is the only non-judge on the nine-member court. Sandra Day O'Connor, a former Arizona legislator whose retirement announcement July 1 triggered the search for her replacement, is the only current justice to have held elective office.

Appointing a politician or lawyer to the court would add ``practical experience'' to a court dominated by cloistered jurists who have spent years reading cases and court transcripts, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican, told reporters in Washington today after meeting with Bush.

``The court is deciding all of the cutting-edge questions and that they're, with impunity, overruling acts of Congress because Congress hasn't thought it through,'' Specter said. ``But somehow the court has thought it through, and who are they to say that they can think it through and we can't?''

Speaking separately to reporters, Bush said, ``We are definitely considering people from all walks of life,'' and said, ``I'm closer today than I was yesterday'' to picking a nominee. ``I am going to be deliberate in the process because I want the American people to know that when I finally make a decision it'll be one based upon a lot of research and a lot of thought.''

Members of the high court have told lawmakers they would welcome a new colleague from ``outside the judicial monastery,'' said Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy, the Judiciary Committee's top Democrat. Leahy recalled that President Bill Clinton had offered a Supreme Court appointment to New York Governor Mario Cuomo in 1993.

White House Breakfast

Bush met for breakfast at the White House with Senate leaders to discuss the process for selecting and confirming a Supreme Court nominee. The senators said they suggested some names, declining to identify them.

``My question was what would it take to get a person confirmed by early October'' when the court begins its next term, Bush said. ``They've got strong opinions and I wanted to hear them. We are actively seeking recommendations.''

Mark I. Levy, a Washington appellate court lawyer with Kilpatrick Stockton and a former Clinton administration official, said few non-judges have been named to the Supreme Court since 1981 -- the year Ronald Reagan became president -- because of the ``the quest for certainty.''

``The best way to get a reading'' on how a justice will rule ``is to see what they have done as a judge,'' he said. ``The court as a whole is less broadly based as it once was.''

More Consultation

Senate Republican leader Bill Frist said Bush and the White House staff are ``reaching out aggressively'' to contact more than 60 senators, ``including half or two-thirds of the Democrats.''

Republicans control the Senate 55-45.

The Democratic leader, Senator Harry Reid, said he was encouraged by Bush's willingness to consult lawmakers. ``I feel comfortable and good that we're going to be able to have someone that is a consensus candidate.,'' he said. The lawmakers didn't give Bush any ``timelines,'' he added. ``I would hope he would do it in the next couple of weeks.''

Bush said he would pick someone who would ``interpret the Constitution and not use the bench for legislating.''

Former Politicians

In urging consideration of a non-judge, Specter noted that the late Earl Warren, a governor of California before he became chief justice, was among five former politicians on the Supreme Court when it issued the landmark Brown v. Board of Education striking down racial segregation in public schools. Three justices at the time were former U.S. senators, Hugo Black, Sherman Minton and Harold Burton.

Minton, nominated in 1949, was the last appointee with congressional experience, according to ``The Supreme Court at Work,'' a guidebook published by Congressional Quarterly.

``When you're a practicing lawyer and then you move up to the district court and then the circuit court, you have very narrow parameters,'' Specter said. ``You look at records, you read cases, you have very little contact with people.''

Politicians ``have very, very different perspectives'' because they ``didn't work so much within the footnotes and the semi-colons,'' he said.

Rehnquist, who was named an associate justice in 1971 by President Richard Nixon, and Lewis Powell, appointed the same year, are the last non-judges to be placed on the Supreme Court.

On June 28, Reid suggested that three Republican members of the U.S. Senate would be suitable candidates for the high court: Michael D. Crapo of Idaho, Mike DeWine of Ohio and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.

To contact the reporter on this story: James Rowley in Washington jarowley@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: July 12, 2005 12:26 EDT