The Bush administration’s search to find the next U.S. attorney in Brooklyn has begun in earnest. Two current assistants in the office have already interviewed in Washington for the job of replacing Roslynn Mauskopf, who will leave her job if she is confirmed as a district judge. That could happen in the next month, after the Senate returns from its recess.

For a full year now, ever since Ms. Mauskopf was first nominated, the question of who will succeed her has been a main subject of speculation in the U.S. Courthouse at Cadman Plaza. The matter is complicated by the fact that the Bush administration is interviewing for both an interim replacement, who would not require Senate confirmation, and a longterm nominee, who would.

Although one of the top federal law enforcement postings in the country, with jurisdiction over five counties, the position may prove less attractive to candidates now than in past years. This late into President Bush’s term, the position comes with very little job security, because the next president can replace whoever replaces Ms. Mauskopf. This may also discourage former prosecutors now in private practice from accepting a White House nomination.

One attorney in private practice in New York, Leslie Caldwell, has already declined to be considered as the presidential nominee after administration officials approached her last year to gauge her interest, a Justice Department source said. Now at Morgan Lewis & Bokius LLP, Ms. Caldwell had previously directed the Justice Department’s Enron task force. She is a veteran of U.S. attorney offices in Brooklyn and San Francisco.

Given the fallout earlier this year from the politically motivated firings of several U.S. attorneys, a president’s nominee to the position could prompt a confirmation showdown in the Senate. A political calculation to be made in the coming months will decide whether the White House even names a presidential nominee, or allows an interim appointee, likely drawn from within the Department of Justice, to serve as U.S. attorney in Brooklyn until the end of the current administration.

“Whether they appoint an interim U.S. attorney and then name a permanent person will depend on a calculus of whether there is the time and the political impetus to get somebody confirmed by the Senate,” a former U.S. attorney in the district between 1999 and 2001, Loretta Lynch, now of Hogan & Hartson, said. If the White House chooses not to advance a presidential nominee, it wall fall to the chief judge of District Court in Brooklyn, Raymond Dearie, to decide whether to sign off on the Justice Department’s interim appointment or pick a replacement. Nonetheless, there is evidently interest in the job. Two deputies to Ms. Mauskopf, Greg Andres and Todd Harrison, in July traveled to Washington to interview for the interim U.S. attorney position, another source close to the Brooklyn office said.

Along with another prosecutor, Mr. Andres, 40, heads the Brooklyn office’s criminal division. Ms. Mauskopf promoted him to that position in the last year, after he served a relatively brief seven years in the office. Another Justice Department official called him “a whiz kid on the rise.” A boxer at Notre Dame, Mr. Andres has an aggressive courtroom presence and doesn’t shy away from heated arguments with defense attorneys.

Mr. Andres made his name prosecuting the Bonanno crime family. He led the prosecution against the crime family’s boss, Joseph Massino, who eventually turned and wore a wire for the government. A registered Democrat, he is the son-in-law of a noted First Amendment attorney, Floyd Abrams.

The other assistant U.S. attorney from the office to be interviewed, Todd Harrison, is a more junior candidate, at least two rungs beneath Mr. Andres in the office’s hierarchy. A registered Republican, Mr. Harrison’s standing in the Justice Department rose considerably last year after he won a conviction at trial of a Pakistani immigrant who plotted to bomb the Herald Square subway station. Attorney General Gonzales has cited the case in speeches.

Mr. Harrison, who is now deputy chief of the violent crimes and terrorism bureau of the criminal division in Brooklyn, has also prosecuted several street gang cases, including a capital trial earlier this year.

In filling the office on an interim basis, the Justice Department could turn to two highly placed alumni of the Brooklyn office now serving in at the Department of Justice.

One leading candidate, Justice Department sources speculate, is a Brooklyn prosecutor on detail to Washington. A registered Republican, Benton J. Campbell, 41, holds one of the top jobs in the criminal division at the Justice Department. Before becoming chief of staff to Alice Fisher, the assistant attorney general for the criminal division, Mr. Campbell worked on the Enron task force. It is not clear whether he has been interviewed for the U.S. attorney position.

“Ben is seen as the steady and respectable choice,” a former prosecutor said. It is unclear what influence, if any, Ms. Mauskopf will exercise over the appointment, but she has not sought to recruit Mr. Campbell back from Washington in the past. Two sources close to the Brooklyn office say she chose not to interview him in 2005 for a vacant position as chief of the criminal division , even though he was considered a top candidate. While in Brooklyn, Mr. Campbell was involved in several high profile matters, including the investigation of the TWA Flight 800 crash.

Another candidate for the job may be the general counsel to the FBI, Valerie Caproni, a Democrat, who served for nearly a decade in the Brooklyn office.

In filling any of the 91 U.S. attorney positions nationwide, the White House often considers recommendations from political allies in the district of the vacancy, such as senators or governor. Ms. Mauskopf got the job in 2002 with the backing of her previous boss, Governor Pataki, for whom she worked as state inspector general. But with senators Schumer and Clinton, as well as Governor Spitzer, all Democrats, their recommendations may have little influence over Mr. Bush’s eventual appointment.

Two candidates now in private practice, Andrew Hruska of King & Spalding and Stephen King of Hunton & Williams, could emerge at the top of any list compiled by the White House, sources close to the office said.

A registered Republican, Mr. Hruska served until 2005 as the top deputy to Ms. Mauskopf. While in Brooklyn, he led the investigation into the Staten Island ferry crash. Previously, he had worked in the nation’s capital, advising a deputy attorney general at the time, Larry Thompson, on drafting new guidelines for corporate prosecutions. He also supervised the Enron and WorldCom prosecutions.

Another candidate, Stephen C. King, is now at Hunton & Williams. After serving as a prosecutor in the Long Island bureau of the U.S. attorney’s office he was detailed to the White House Homeland Security Council for two years. He serves as a presidential appointee to a commission that judges claims by American citizens against foreign governments.