appeals court Judges Sotomayor and Prado along with district court Judge Hinojosa. Again, Bush did not offer any names of his own to discuss. On Thursday, September 22, Roberts' nomination was voted out of the Senate Judiciary Committee by a bipartisan vote of 13–5. During a press conference on Monday, September 26, Bush implied that his next nominee would be either a woman or a minority. In making his decision concerning O'Connor's replacement, he said he would keep in mind that, "diversity is one of the strengths of the country". John Roberts was confirmed by the United States Senate on Thursday, September 29, by a vote of 78—22 and was sworn in both privately and publicly later the same day. During the evening of Sunday, October 2, John Fund, a columnist for the Wall Street Journal, announced on the radio show of blogger Matt Drudge that his sources had told him that the nominee would be moderate Hispanic Judge Consuelo M. Callahan of the Ninth Circuit. The website ConfirmThem.com, however, reported on the same evening that the selection had been made in favor of conservative Fourth Circuit Judge Karen J. Williams. On Monday, October 3, President Bush unexpectedly chose little-known White House Counsel Harriet Miers as O'Connor's replacement. Harriet Miers nomination There was immediate and intense opposition to Miers’ nomination, primarily from conservative Republicans. Principal complaints included: That her credentials under objective standards were not sufficient to qualify her for the position. That her nomination was the result of political cronyism. Because her legal career did not compare to those of other possible conservative female candidates (like federal appellate judges Edith Jones, Karen J. Williams, Priscilla Owen, and Janice Rogers Brown), many thought that President Bush probably nominated Miers for her personal loyalty to him rather than for her qualifications. That there was no written record to demonstrate that she was either a strict constructionist or originalist in her approach to constitutional interpretation. Some conservatives feared that she would support abortion, affirmative action and gay rights if ever confirmed to a seat on the Supreme Court. On the morning of Thursday, October 27, 2005, President Bush "reluctantly" accepted Miers’ request to withdraw her nomination. Samuel Alito nomination Bush moved quickly to find an alternative nominee to Miers, a nominee who would have both the credentials that Miers lacked and a conservative judicial philosophy that could be well documented. On the