WASHINGTON -- In the days last November after he was elected to a second term, President Bush had chosen Alberto Gonzales as his next attorney general, and word was spreading that the president might replace him as White House counsel with longtime confidante Harriet Miers. A small number of advisers inside and outside the White House grumbled that she was ill-suited to become top lawyer to the president.

As a deputy chief of staff, these detractors quietly warned, Ms. Miers could be slow to make decisions, with a penchant for detail over strategic thinking. "People came to me with concerns," recalls Leonard Leo, executive vice president of the conservative Federalist Society, who said he heard complaints "that her management style was one that could miss the forest for the trees." Mr. Leo, who favored a friend for the job, confirmed that he forwarded the concerns about Ms. Miers when consulted by the White House.

Mr. Bush appointed Ms. Miers as his counsel nonetheless and, 11 months later, nominated her to fill a pivotal vacancy on the Supreme Court created by the retirement of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. Having now seen Ms. Miers at work, Leo said, "whatever concerns I may have harbored ... have since evaporated," and he supports her nomination.

Still, the internal worries about how she would perform as counsel reflect a widespread view that, during five years in three jobs at the president's side, Ms. Miers has wielded formidable power with fairness and attention to detail -- but rarely was a strong voice in policy decisions the administration has faced.

"The thing about Harriet is, it wasn't about Harriet," said Education Secretary Margaret Spellings, a friend. "To her, it was a matter of moving the grist through the mill. ... She was a manager of the process."

Unlike some high-level presidential aides, Ms. Miers has never sought to advance her own views. Amid the clash of ideas and egos in the West Wing, colleagues say, she has been an island of reserve and decorum. "She blushes when the rest of us got a little raunchy," said Ms. Spellings, who worked with her closely as Mr. Bush's domestic policy adviser.

At staff meetings, Ms. Miers spoke up only when she considered it essential. "There were plenty of us banging around with very strong views on issues, and she understood she was wearing the striped shirt," said Indiana Gov. Mitchell E. Daniels Jr., who was Mr. Bush's first budget director. "A word from Harriet would calm everybody down. She did have that schoolmarm voice."

Her demure exterior, however, cloaks a tough will and an uncommonly close relationship with Mr. Bush. In the Oval Office and on the road, Ms. Miers has spent more time with him than perhaps any aide except Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr. On Sept. 11, 2001, she was flying on Air Force One as it sped the president to the Midwest and back after the terrorist attacks.

In June 2003, when Mr. Bush stood on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln to declare that "major combat operations" had ended in Iraq, Ms. Miers was part of a nucleus of aides who stayed overnight with him on the aircraft carrier. She is with him often at his ranch in Crawford, Texas, and is a regular weekend visitor to the presidential retreat at Camp David.

Such proximity to Mr. Bush makes her unlike any Supreme Court nominee of the past generation. Not since 1965, when Lyndon B. Johnson nominated his personal lawyer and trusted adviser, Abe Fortas, has a president chosen someone with whom he is on such close terms.

Ms. Miers's atypical profile -- she is the first Supreme Court nominee in three decades who has not been a judge -- has given ammunition to supporters and detractors alike.

Critics suggest that she lacks gravitas and constitutional expertise and has not shown herself a sufficiently deep thinker to decide the nation's most profound legal questions. Others portray her as fair, diligent and a quick study who would import real-life experience to the court.

"She was always pleasant, always polite, always being tough as the paper kept moving," said former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer. "Is that a skill you need to be a Supreme Court justice? No, I don't think so. But it's a reflection of, when she has a mission, she knows how to accomplish it."

As a corporate lawyer in Dallas, Ms. Miers had been Mr. Bush's personal lawyer and worked as counsel to his campaigns for governor and president. Still, when she was invited to move to Washington, "it was certainly a challenging decision," said her sister-in-law, Elizabeth Lang-Miers, a Dallas judge. "She had so much respect for the president, but leaving Dallas, her home and her career was kind of a difficult decision."

Mr. Fleischer recalled that Ms. Miers had hoped that she would become White House counsel from the outset. Instead, she was offered the job of staff secretary to the president. It is, Mr. Daniels said, "a thankless job, ... always a flak-catching job."

As staff secretary, Ms. Miers was the last person to handle every piece of paper that went to Mr. Bush, and, with scores of employees, it was her task to make sure that each document was accurate and ready for the president's eyes.

Early every evening, she delivered to the president's East Wing residence a binder consisting of his schedule for the following day and tabbed sections that contained background material on the people and issues that he would face. Mr. Fleischer called it "a perfectionist's job."

"You had to meet her standards, which are very, very high standards, to get documents in to the president," said one former administration official. "I would be fibbing if I didn't say at times that was frustrating."