By RON FOURNIER

Associated Press

While the nation’s highest court considered who will serve in the nation’s highest office, advisers for George W. Bush and Al Gore today floated the names of candidates for two separate Cabinets – only one of which will ever see the light of day.

From the splender of their raised wooden dais, nine U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments on a narrow question of Florida election law while, hundreds of miles away, the state’s Supreme Court dealt Gore a blow in Tallahassee: His petition for immediate recounts was denied.

“Why should the federal judiciary be interfering in what seems to be a very carefully though-out scheme” for electing people in Florida, asked U.S. Supreme Court Justice David H. Souter – his just one in a series of questions about the high court’s jurisdiction.

The scene outside the courtroom in Washington was less solemn. Hundreds of people from both camps demonstrated alongside those hoping for a taste of history or a dose of attention. Anti-abortion groups, feminists, the Falun Gong religious group – all sharing the street scene with a man dressed as Uncle Sam. Darth Vader was there, too, rubbing elbows with a Roman soldier.

Then there was the man who drove past the menagerie, yelling out his car window: “No president! We don’t need no president!”

And yet, the courts labored long to find one – the closest White House race of the century was the subject of 42 separate lawsuits in Florida alone.

A circuit judge in that state is holding a hearing Saturday on the Gore petition to overturn Florida’s results. Secretary of State Katherine Harris, a Bush partisan, has certified the Texas governor winner by 537 votes out of 6 million cast.

Florida’s 25 electoral votes would give Bush one more than the 270 needed to claim the White House. If Gore wins in the courts, GOP state lawmakers were preparing to call a special session to appoint a slate of Bush electors.

Gore wants Harris ordered to accept the results of manually recounted ballots in three Democratic-leaning counties, where he hopes to pick up votes. He asked the Florida Supreme Court to have the ballots counted while Circuit Judge N. Sanders Sauls proceeds with the case. But the seven state justices – all with Democratic ties – refused late today.

Gore’s team was preparing allies for a potential defeat at the U.S. Supreme Court, circulating word that the real battle is in Sauls’ court. The winner of his election protest will certainly appeal, Democratic lawmakers on Capitol Hill were told, and the nation’s highest court could get another crack at the case.

“The worse that happens is they add a few hundred votes to Bush’s total. Still, the most important thing is whether or not they count the ballots,” Gore campaign chairman William Daley said in a phone interview.

Daley is in line for a top White House job, most likely chief of staff if he wants it, according to several Gore advisers.

Housing Secretary Andrew Cuomo also is a candidate for chief of staff, according to two senior Gore advisers who have discussed the potential transition with the vice president. The two sources also say: