Meghan McCain's vacant seat on "The View" will be filled by another strong, conservative woman, but they're also in no hurry to make the decision ... sources close to the talk show tell TMZ.
As we reported ... Meghan announced she was leaving "The View" on July 1 following a series of nasty exchanges with her cohosts, though she said the official reason was wanting to be in D.C. with her family.
Regardless, her departure leaves a huge hole as far as -- to state the obvious -- the views offered on the show. For that reason, our production sources say they're searching for someone like McCain -- a Republican or conservative -- to replace her, but no names have been officially proposed yet.
Instead, we're told the plan is to rotate guests once Meghan is out at the end of the month, and for the start of the new season in September ... and take their time finding a permanent replacement.
Our sources say it's obviously very important to find the right woman ... so producers want to test chemistry between the guests and the regular cohosts.
Seems kind of like an interesting audition process, but in the end ... it sounds like Sara Haines will get her wish too.