When retired federal Judge Charles Pickering Sr. talks about the filibuster that retired him, a little bitterness creeps into his voice.
He holds the leftists in favor of abortion and redefinition of marriage responsible for his retirement.
A group of notables and friends listened Friday night to Pickering, 69, discuss his trials in failing to hold onto President George W. Bush's recess appointment to the Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit.
"Ink on a recess commission is like Cinderella's carriage," Pickering said. "It disappears after some time."
Pickering autographed copies of his book, "Supreme Chaos: The Politics of Judicial Confirmation & the Culture War" at Turnrow Book Co. on Howard Street.
The book talks about the confirmation woes of the former judge from Laurel. In it, he calls the struggle over the court seat "part of the larger culture war in America."
By that, Pickering referred to one side as those who support religious values and those who support the secular. He identifies the players on both sides in his book. The battlefield: Congress.
The onetime politician who ran for governor on the GOP ticket said he's out of politics. "I'll leave that up to Chip," Pickering said of his son, a Republican congressman who represents the Third District in Mississippi.
The author believes a political move in 1976 that had the Mississippi Republican delegation taking a position against abortion drove his opponents in Congress last year to attack him for the Court of Appeals confirmation.
Yet, Pickering said, the opposition spent so much of its time and energy on appellate judges that they lost momentum by the time Bush made his U.S. Supreme Court nominations of John G. Roberts Jr. for chief justice and Samuel Alito for justice.
"In the long run, we won," Pickering said.
The proud grandfather of 21, Pickering says he's working on a second book - a sequel to "Supreme Chaos," that will speak to his personal journey and a possible solution to the politics of the judiciary.
