The LA Times and other news sources have given this list of names circulating around the White House for possible replacements of Alberto Gonzales:

People close to the administration said that any list of possible candidates would include Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff; Larry D. Thompson, the deputy attorney general under John Ashcroft; and Theodore B. Olson, the solicitor general under Ashcroft.

Prediction: It won't be Ted Olson. For the same reasons he will never make it to the Supreme Court. Larry Thompson might not want the job, he's doing great at Pepsico. Even Chertoff must know he hasn't wowed anyone with his tenure at Homeland Security -- think of his Katrina performance. But he was a federal judge and prosecutor before being named to Homeland Security, so he might be easy to convince.

I like Larry Thompson, he's fair and he's been both a defense lawyer and a prosecutor. The criminal defense bar likes him, and that's something when it comes to a prosecutor. I've endorsed him before, and I'd do it again.

But, I wonder, with only 22 months left in his Presidency, will Bush take chance on a non-loyalist Attorney General or someone outside his immediate circle ...or will he find someone from his dad's reign to help bail him out. That's more in keeping with his character and his pattern of appointments. When things get tough, he raids his dad's cabinet.