"Says
Pickering, To accuse a white southerner of being a racist
is about the worst thing you can do.
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Judge
Pickering Speaks Out
As
a part of their campaign to obstruct President Bushs judicial
nominees, Senate Democrats, led by U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY),
and outside special interest groups, tried to brand Judge Charles
Pickering a racist. In an extraordinary interview with CBSs
60 Minutes broadcast March 28, Judge Pickering rebutted those
charges.
President
Bush first nominated Judge Pickering to the U.S. Court of Appeals
for the 5th Circuit in May of 2001. Nearly three years
later, after Judge Pickerings nomination was filibustered
by Senate Democrats, President Bush invoked his constitutional authority
to grant him a temporary appointment during a Senate recess.
Pickerings
experience is all too typical of the problems with the confirmation
process. A particularly qualified nominee, Pickering had served
as a U.S. District Court Judge in Mississippi for more than 10 years.
He earned the American Bar Associations highest rating for
a judicial nominee. Nevertheless, Senate Democrats and well-funded
liberal interest groups worked tirelessly to distort his record
and label him, of all things, a racist.
According
to 60 Minutes, "Judge Pickering felt so strongly that
hed been smeared and that he is not racially insensitive
he agreed to speak to 60 Minutes on camera, which
federal judges almost never do.
"Says
Pickering, To accuse a white southerner of being a racist
is about the worst thing you can do. And this has been my life work.
I have worked for more than three decades trying to provide better
relations between the races, trying to protect equal rights. Thats
my core being. And theyve attacked that."
In
the interview, Judge Pickering describes his work in the 1960s,
as a young county attorney, fighting to break the Ku Klux Klan.
As a result, with himself and his family in danger, the FBI put
him under protection. In the 1970s, when other white parents were
removing their kids from public schools to resist integration, the
Pickerings children attended the integrated schools. In 1981,
Judge Pickering defended a young black man who was charged with
robbing a young white girl at knifepoint. "It was not a popular
case for me to take on," said Judge Pickering. "But I
thought he was innocent and that he needed a defense. I didnt
think he would have gotten a good attorney [unless I had taken the
case.] He was acquitted."
"Mississippi
[has] made tremendous progress. And I feel like Ive been a
part of that progress
And I think its extremely unfortunate
any time anyone, black or white, uses race to divide us and polarize
us," Judge Pickering concluded.
To
read the full transcript of the 60 Minutes story, click
here.
[Posted
April 1, 2004]
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