JACKSON - Racist. Extremist. Civil rights opponent. That's what his Democratic opponents called federal District Judge Charles W. Pickering of Laurel.
President Bush decided on Jan. 16 that those same Democratic critics could call him something else - a federal appeals court judge.
U.S. Senate Democrats and Bush administration's political opponents tried to paint Pickering as a snarling segregationist from Mississippi's bad old days. It was a smear that took root to a great degree based simply on Mississippi's turbulent history.
The smear unfolded despite an unblemished public record as a state legislator and a federal judge and wide praise for Pickering's career-long record of racial reconciliation from Mississippi Democrats and numerous credible voices from the state's black community.
Senate Democrats, who in truth disagreed more with Pickering's Baptist faith and the impact that faith might have on his personal views on abortion and other questions, attacked the judge as a racist. But the Senate's refusal to confirm Pickering's nomination to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the past two and a half years was grounded far more in his perceived future opinions on abortion litigation and pure partisan politics.
The latter can be understood far more than the former in that Republican senators blocked Clinton administration judicial nominees in some of the same partisan political exercises. Pickering's national reputation paid a high price for those GOP political games.
But the smear to which Pickering's reputation was subjected on the question of race was simply unconscionable given the fact that Pickering stood up against Ku Klux Klan intimidation in the 1960s - an act of political and social suicide in many circles of the state in that day.
Pickering's progressive stance on race in Mississippi - much like that of Tupelo businessman and unsuccessful 1987 GOP gubernatorial nominee Jack Reed - is one that should have been praised, not castigated. But the folks holding the brushes used to paint Judge Pickering's smear weren't eager to be confused with the facts.
To their undying credit, then Democratic Gov. Ronnie Musgrove - who was at the time in dire need of every Democratic vote he could get - bucked the party line and made clear his denunciation of the racial smear campaign and his support for Pickering's confirmation.
The same can be said for then Attorney General Mike Moore, who almost as surely as the sun will set today will in the future be seeking Democratic votes to join the very senators who subjected Pickering to the political equivalent of the rack in the confirmation process.
Moore went all the way to the Oval Office to join Bush in support of Pickering's nomination - effectively snubbing Democratic 2nd District U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, who tried to lead his party's opposition to Pickering's confirmation.
But after two-plus years of gridlock and partisan wrangling, Bush finally had enough. He gave Pickering a recess appointment to the 5th Circuit bench. That appointment will allow Pickering to serve on the appeals court bench until the new Congress convenes in 2005.
Pickering was qualified to serve and is a mighty good man caught in a political quagmire not of his own making.
Senate Democrats will likely intensify their opposition to Bush judicial appointees because of the Pickering appointment. But clearly this is a president who recognized that advice and consent does not give the Senate unlimited powers to usurp presidential appointments.
