“I don’t agree (with Republicans),” O’Connor said in an interview with Phoenix-based Fox affiliate KSAZ. “We need somebody in there to do the job and just get on with it.”

She noted that it’s unusual to for a Supreme Court opening to exist in an election year, saying that the proximity to the presidential race “creates too much talk around the thing that isn’t necessary.”

She said Obama should name a replacement for Scalia, an influential conservative member of the nation’s high court who was found dead Saturday at age 79.

“Well you just have to pick the best person you can under these circumstances, as the appointing authority must do. And it’s an important position and one we care about as a nation, as a people,” O’Connor said. “And I wish the president well as he makes choices and goes down that line — it’s hard.”