EDITORIAL
A poor appointment to U.S. appeals court
Just days before Martin Luther King's birthday, President Bush's interim appointment of Charles Pickering to the federal 5th Circuit Court of Appeals reflects all that is hypocritical about the longtime Republican strategy for political dominance in the United States.
Of course Bush is hardly the first president to make use of the device of interim, or recess, appointment to bypass the Senate confirmation process. Such appointments are valid until the next Congress takes office, in this case in January 2005.
The battle over Pickering, whose appointment had been stymied in the Senate, is reminiscent of similar controversies during the Clinton administration. Clinton used recess appointments to allow Bill Lann Lee to head the Justice Department's civil rights division, and Roger Gregory to become a federal appeals judge.
Lee, who became the highest-ranking Asian American in the Clinton administration, promised reinvigorated civil rights enforcement. Gregory became the first black to serve on the southeastern 4th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Bush's appointment of Pickering, a protégé of Mississippi Sen. Trent Lott, to the 5th Circuit advances a cynical political strategy to gain votes in the South. It relies on politically correct — and often entirely honest — public expressions on race, while refusing to decry efforts — such as those of Pickering — that aim to turn back the clock on racial equality.
Welcoming the votes of those who remain unpersuaded about the importance of racial equality has been an unspoken part of a GOP strategy that put Nixon, Reagan and both Bushes in the White House.
Pickering's reputation as an anti-minority judge — particularly in reducing the sentence of a cross-burner — appeals politically to the backward element while diminishing the luster of the federal courts, which have served as the shield protecting basic civil rights in this country.
What's shameful about this appointment is the silence of the many good Republicans who know it's wrong but benefit from it.
