WASHINGTON -- President Bush yesterday nominated Virginia Supreme Court Justice G. Steven Agee to the Richmond-based federal appeals court.

Both senators from Virginia, Republican John W. Warner and Democrat Jim Webb, applauded the move.

"I am pleased that President Bush has selected a Virginian of such distinction for this high honor," Warner said in a statement.

"With more than 30 years of legal experience and the highest esteem of his peers, Judge Agee will make an outstanding federal jurist."

Agee, 55, who represented Salem in the House of Delegates from 1982 to 1993, lost the 1993 Republican nomination for attorney general to Jim Gilmore.

In March 2000, the General Assembly elected Agee to the Virginia Court of Appeals. Three years later, the assembly elevated him to the state Supreme Court.

Agee was among five candidates that Warner and Webb had recommended last year for two vacancies on the Richmond-based appeals court after interviewing more than a dozen applicants.

"Agee was among this list of outstanding candidates," Webb said in a statement. "I am pleased that the president has advanced the process by nominating Judge Agee to the Fourth Circuit."

The Warner and Webb consensus is key, said Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond.

This [nomination] is a promising development if you want to see these seats filled, and I think it is important to have them filled," he said.

"I think he has balanced judicial temperament from what I understand," Tobias said of Agee, adding: "I think he would be characterized," as a "moderate to conservative Republican" during his service in the state legislature, "not overly ideological."

Last September, Bush nominated E. Duncan Getchell Jr., a candidate who was not on the Virginia senators' list, to another vacancy on the 4th Circuit. In January, Getchell, a partner at McGuireWoods, asked the White House to withdraw his nomination, citing an unfavorable political climate.

The Agee nomination "shows the White House is respectful of recommendations of the two home state senators," Webb spokeswoman Jessica Smith said.

Agee is being nominated to replace J. Michael Luttig, who resigned in 2006 to become general counsel for Boeing Corp.

Even with the backing of John Warner and Webb, a quick confirmation is unlikely, Tobias said.

In a presidential election year, "the selection process slows down and traditionally comes to a halt," Tobias said. "The party out of the White House thinks it's going to win" and wants to fill such openings.

Contact Neil H. Simon at (202) 662-7669 or nsimon@mediageneral.com.