President George W. Bush will start looking for a female candidate with credentials similar to those of Chief Justice John Roberts following Harriet Miers’ withdrawal from the nomination process, faculty members said Thursday.The White House said Miers had withdrawn because of senators’ demands to see internal documents related to her role as counsel to the president, according to the Associated Press. The AP also reported that politics played a larger role: Bush’s conservative backers had doubts about her ideological purity, and Democrats had little incentive to help the nominee or the embattled GOP president.

Jim Riddlesperger, chairman of the political science department, said the president will take a little time before he starts his push for the next nominee.

“He has a very difficult task ahead of him,” Riddlesperger said. “He wants another John Roberts. My guess is that he’ll take a few days to weigh his options, but he wants another woman, one with the persona of John Roberts, because that whole process went very smoothly.”

Political science professor Manochehr Dorraj said that Roberts’ relatively painless approval also may have served as a basis of comparison for Miers’ nomination and subsequent withdrawal.

“She was not a candidate like Roberts, who seemed to have won over both sides of the aisle,” Dorraj said. “She actually seems to have done just the opposite.”

Because the president initially nominated a woman, Dorraj said, Bush will be expected to choose another woman or a minority as a replacement.

Riddlesperger said the left will remain unsupportive if Bush nominates a far-right candidate, regardless of credentials.

“There are a number of conservative high profile judges available, but I think the Democrats would seriously consider filibustering that movement,” Riddlesperger said.

Senior political science major Laura Podgorski said the move wasn’t unexpected.

“Honestly, I’m not terribly surprised,” Podgorski said. “The conservatives didn’t even really support her.”

The move is both positive and negative depending on the point of view, Podgorski said.

“While she’s a very educated woman, it was probably a good thing for the Supreme Court and a bad thing for President Bush,” Podgorski said.