Defending Pickering
The White House launches its last-minute defense.

March 6, 2002 12:55 p.m.

upporters of embattled judicial nominee Charles Pickering made an emotional plea for his confirmation today after an Oval Office meeting with President Bush.

Pickering himself was in the group that met with the president, but did not meet with reporters afterward. His supporters, most of whom were Democrats from Pickering's home state of Mississippi, faced persistent questioning from the national press corps about Pickering's record on civil rights.

"He has always been fair," said Mike Moore, the Democratic attorney general of Mississippi. "Judge Pickering is a good man, he's a friend of mine, and I trust him on the bench."

Charles Evers, brother of murdered civil-rights activist Medgar Evers, also appeared on Pickering's behalf. Evers said, "I'm not going to sit by and let these Yankees scuttle the nomination."

Pickering's son, Rep. Chip Pickering, was also with the group. The younger Pickering offered a detailed defense of his father's record in a 1994 cross-burning case that has been the focus of Democratic criticism. He was also asked why Republicans have taken so long to mount an energetic defense of the nominee. "We were all just taken aback" by Democratic opposition to the nomination, Pickering said. "We just did not see this coming, we were blindsided, and we were shocked by the intensity."

After the White House meeting, the group of Pickering supporters headed to Capitol Hill where they hoped to meet with Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats. It's believed that every Democrat on the committee opposes the nomination, but Pickering supporters hope they can convince at least one Democrat to vote in favor of a resolution to send the nomination to a vote in the full Senate, even if it is defeated by the committee.

The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to meet Thursday to consider the Pickering nomination. It is possible, however, that a vote will be put off for one more week until Thursday, March 14.

It is not clear whether the president's last-minute involvement in the case will be enough to turn the tide in Pickering's favor. If not, a Pickering defeat would be the Bush administration's first lost judicial-nomination battle.