[summer]

Judge Pickering, now a federal district judge in the nearby city of Hattiesburg, was praised by black city officials for helping to set up after- school youth programs here, and for directing federal money to medical clinics in low-income areas when he was a state senator. Black business leaders say he was influential in persuading white-owned banks to lend money to black entrepreneurs, helping to strengthen the city's black middle class.

When Dem presidentical candidates criticize a judge who did this, these candidates look silly to me.

[summer]

FYI.

[MEG33]

Kerry sounded so bad calling Pickering a supporter of cross burners or some such complete distortion of the facts.