Arlen Specter: “I have sought again recognition to comment on the pending nomination of District Court Judge Charles Pickering who is up…”

“I have sought again recognition to comment on the pending nomination of District Court Judge Charles Pickering who is up for consideration for the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. I had spoken briefly on this subject yesterday and had stated my intention to support Judge Pickering because he is a different man in 2002 than he was in the early 1970s when he was a Mississippi State senator. The world has come a long way in the intervening 30 years. Attitudes have evolved. Judge Pickering has evidenced his sensitivity to civil rights issues. He has been praised broadly by people who know him from Laurel, MS, for taking on the leader of the Ku Klux Klan in a way which was physically endangering to Judge Pickering himself. I noted yesterday, and I think it worth commenting today, the votes probably will not be there to send Judge Pickering from the Judiciary Committee with an affirmative vote. It looks to me as if it will be a party-line vote of 10 to 9. Regrettably, there is a great deal of partisan politics in the way judges are confirmed by the Senate.”