Bush's courageous step

By Staff
January 18, 2004
President Bush has reinforced our faith in all things decent by appointing Judge Charles Pickering to a seat on the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. And, by bypassing the filibustering nonsense employed by a bitter minority in the U.S. Senate, Bush again has demonstrated himself a master of the bold political stroke.
Judge Pickering is an honorable man, distinguished by the quality of his personal and professional life. He was, and remains to this day, well qualified for the federal appeals court seat Democrats in the Senate tried to deny him. He was, and remains to this day, a victim of character assassination by people who no more know him than they would the man on the moon.
But all that aside, Pickering has now taken his rightful place at the upper echelon of this country's judicial branch and the mechanism used by Bush a recess appointment does nothing to dilute the rightness of the appointment. Pickering will distinguish himself again because he is that kind of man.
And the cowardly lions in the U.S. Senate the ones who would not allow a simple up or down vote on his nomination can live with the legacy of their callous political error.