Sat, Jan. 17, 2004
MOVE ESCALATES BATTLE OVER NOMINEES WASHINGTON - President Bush bypassed senators Friday and installed Charles W. Pickering as an appeals court judge, ending a two-year battle over a Mississippian viewed by Democrats as hostile to civil rights. Republican officials called the decision a calculated escalation by Bush in his battle with Democrats over their use of delaying tactics to stall several of his most conservative nominees for lifetime seats on the federal bench. The move threatened to further poison White House relations with Democrats at the start of an election year. Bush used his recess-appointment powers to seat Pickering, 66, a federal district judge in Hattiesburg, Miss., on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, based in New Orleans. Pickering was sworn in Friday night at the U.S. District Courthouse in Jackson, Miss., less than three hours after Bush's announcement. Such appointments, which the president can make when lawmakers are out of session, last until the next Congress takes office -- in this case, January 2005. Senate records show the power has been used to elevate judges only a handful of times in the past 30 years. Before leaving office, President Clinton used the mechanism to install Roger Gregory as the first black judge on the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which includes Maryland and Virginia. Bush renominated Gregory, who was confirmed. Pickering was challenged by Democrats over his 1994 actions from the bench to reduce the sentence of a man convicted of burning a cross near the home of an interracial couple. Republicans contend Pickering was motivated by concern over the fairness of sentences meted out in the case. Democrats also raised questions about Pickering's contacts as a state senator in the 1970s with the Mississippi Sovereignty Commission, which worked to preserve segregation. Bush has called Pickering ``an advocate of civil rights'' and pointed to a large number of African-American leaders in Mississippi who supported him. Bush, in a written statement issued after he had departed for Camp David late Friday afternoon, asserted that a bipartisan majority of senators support Pickering and that ``if he were given a vote, he would be confirmed.'' ``But a minority of Democratic senators has been using unprecedented obstructionist tactics to prevent him and other qualified individuals from receiving up-or-down votes,'' he said. ``Their tactics are inconsistent with the Senate's constitutional responsibility and are hurting our judicial system.'' A Senate Republican leadership aide said the appointment was a ``shot across the bow'' to Democrats after the White House decided they were paying too small a price for filibustering the nominations of Pickering and five other appeals-court nominees, several of whom Bush sees as potential future Supreme Court picks. But the aide said Bush was ``taking a chance,'' since Democrats might retaliate on other nominees they might otherwise have let be confirmed. Both parties are likely to make Pickering an issue in November's election as an engine for motivating their core supporters. Democrats quickly charged that the appointment shows his re-election could threaten reproductive and civil rights. Republicans were arguing that Pickering's dilemma shows why Bush needs more Republicans in the Senate, now 51 Republicans, 48 Democrats and one independent. Nominated soon after Bush took office in 2001, Pickering was rejected by the Senate Judiciary Committee when Democrats controlled the chamber in 2002. Bush renominated him last year as soon as Republicans regained control of the chamber. The nomination stalled after a furor over racially inflammatory remarks by then-Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., his main patron, who subsequently resigned from his leadership post. Pickering and his allies continued to try to build support, and he was later approved by the Judiciary Committee on a party-line vote, setting the stage for a showdown fight on the Senate floor last fall. As they had done with several other Bush nominees, Democrats filibustered Pickering's nomination. Democrats condemned Bush's action Friday, announced at the start of a holiday weekend. Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., said it shows Bush ``has no interest in working in a bipartisan manner to appoint moderate judges who will uphold the law.''