Bush Renominates Pickering as Federal Judge
Add Politics to My Yahoo! By Thomas Ferraro
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - With fellow Republicans now in control of the U.S. Senate, President Bush (news - web sites) on Tuesday renominated Charles Pickering and 30 other judicial nominees who failed to win confirmation in the previous Democratic-led chamber.
Pickering, a friend of former Senate Republican Leader Trent Lott, a fellow Mississippian, was voted down by the Senate Judiciary Committee (news - web sites) last year because of concerns about his civil rights record, and Democrats on Tuesday vowed to oppose him again.
Following the fall of Lott last month for racially charged remarks, Pickering's prospects of being renominated by Bush appeared dim, with a number of Democrats saying they believed he would not get another chance.
Yet the White House said Bush decided to renominate the Mississippi federal district court judge to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (news - web sites) in New Orleans, believing he should be considered by the full Senate.
Bush also renominated Texas Supreme Court Justice Priscilla Owen of Texas, the only other judicial nominee voted down by the previous Judiciary Committee. Bush wants to put her on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, too.
Twenty-nine other Bush judicial nominees, including Miguel Estrada, who the president wants to make the first Hispanic on the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, did not get a committee vote last year and their nominations effectively died with the end of the last Congress.
Although Republicans now control the Senate, 51 to 48, with one independent, Democrats may try to prevent a vote on at least Pickering and Owen in the Judiciary Committee since both were voted on last year, aides said.
To be able to get to an up or down vote on the two in the committee, Republicans would need the support of at least one committee Democrat, aides said, explaining committee rules.
Owen was rejected last year primarily because of what critics denounced as her anti-abortion and anti-consumer record.
Bush renominated all 31 on Tuesday, shortly after the 108th Congress convened with a Republican-led Senate. A White House spokeswoman said the president believes all should be considered by the entire 100-member chamber.
In the previous Democratic-led Senate, 100 of the Bush's 131 judicial nominees were confirmed. Many of the others were blocked, with Democrats complaining they were part of Bush's effort to stack the bench with right-wing ideologues.
Republicans countered all the nominees were highly qualified and were subjected to unfair liberal litmus tests.
Sen. Edward Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat and a member of the Judiciary Committee, blasted Bush's decision to renominate Pickering.
"Judge Pickering's record reflects a hostility to civil rights," Kennedy said. "(He) was rejected by the Senate Judiciary Committee last year, and we will use every tool in our arsenal to ensure that his nomination is rejected again."
Sen. Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat and another member of the Judiciary Committee, said, "Unfortunately the administration has not learned from the Trent Lott episode."
Bush made the stalled judicial nominations a major theme of his effort to help Republicans recapture the Senate last year, and in October proposed a "clean start" plan to reform and accelerate the nominations process.
"The judicial confirmation process does not work as it should. Nominees are too often mistreated, votes are delayed, hearings are denied, and dozens of federal judgeships sit empty, and this endangers the quality of justice in America," Bush said in an Oct. 30 event at the White House.
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Bush Renominates Pickering, Other Judges
Add White House - AP to My Yahoo! By JESSE J. HOLLAND, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - President Bush (news - web sites) on Tuesday renominated appellate court nominees Charles Pickering of Mississippi and Priscilla Owen of Texas, who were rejected by the Democrat-controlled Senate last year but will likely have a better shot of confirmation under the newly Republican-controlled chamber.
AP Photo
(AP Video)Pickering and Owen's nominations were returned to the Senate along with 28 other judicial nominations who were not considered by the full Senate last year. Pickering and Owen, however, were the only two who were specifically rejected last year by the Democrat-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee (news - web sites).
"All judicial nominees deserve consideration by the full Senate," White House spokeswoman Ashley Snee said.
There was some question about whether Pickering, who was accused of being racially insensitive by Democrats, would be renominated after one of his patrons, Sen. Trent Lott (news, bio, voting record), stepped down as Senate GOP leader after making racially insensitive remarks.
And Senate Democrats immediately pledged to do whatever they could to keep Pickering from getting a seat on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (news - web sites) in New Orleans, including a possible filibuster of the nomination.
"Unfortunately, they have not learned from the Trent Lott episodes and I am going to do everything I can to stop the Pickering nomination from going forward," said Sen. Charles Schumer (news, bio, voting record), D-N.Y.
Pickering, a U.S. District judge in Hattiesburg, Miss., and a Lott friend, was blocked by Senate Democrats last year after civil rights groups accused him of racial insensitivity.
"Those accusations ring hollow," Snee said. "These nominees have earned bipartisan support and respect from those who know them."
Owen also was voted down by the Democrat-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee last year while seeking a seat on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans. Democrats complained that Owen has been an anti-abortion and pro-business judicial activist whose opinions and rulings were overly influenced by her personal beliefs.
After almost sweeping the November elections, Republicans — behind new Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee — now control the Senate by a 51-48-1 margin, with independent Sen. Jim Jeffords of Vermont voting with the Democrats.
Senate Judiciary Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, "is pleased that the president is acting as soon as possible on nominations. We have a lot of leftover work to do," spokeswoman Margarita Tapia said.
Pickering's opponents have said the White House should not renominate the Mississippi judge as punishment for Lott's comments.
Lott triggered an uproar last month when he said that Mississippians were proud to have voted for retired South Carolina Sen. Strom Thurman in 1948 on the pro-segregationist Dixiecrat ticket. "And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years either," Lott said.
Lott said last month that he expected Pickering's opponents to invoke his name in opposition to the Mississippi judge. "Obviously people will try to use it against him," Lott said. "They used a lot of things against him last time that were very unfair."
Senate Democrats say Pickering's renomination shows the GOP did not learn anything from Lott's controversy.
"Given the encouraging rhetoric of this administration on civil rights over the last few weeks, it's astonishing that when it's time to match that rhetoric with real action they nominate Charles Pickering to serve on the second highest court in the nation," said Sen. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts.
Kennedy said Democrats "will use every tool in our arsenal to ensure that his nomination is rejected again this year."
Pickering was defeated 10-9 in committee last March after civil rights groups said he supported segregation as a young man in Mississippi. Pickering's opponents also pointed to his conservative voting record as a Mississippi state lawmaker and decisions as a judge.
Pickering's supporters, including some Mississippi Democrats and black leaders, said Pickering supported civil rights efforts as far back as the middle 1960s.
The Senate last year confirmed 100 of Bush's 131 appellate and district court nominees under Democratic control. Bush plans on making new judicial nominations before the end of April, Snee said.
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