<p>WASHINGTON -- In an election-year slap at filibustering Democrats, President Bush sidestepped Congress yesterday and installed Judge Charles Pickering of Mississippi to the federal appeals court after a battle filled with racial, religious, and regional argument.</p>
<p>Bush elevated Pickering by recess appointment, simply putting him in office while Congress was out of session. Such appointments, bypassing confirmation, are valid until the next Congress takes office, in this case in January 2005.</p>