BUSH AND MLK….So I see that President Bush has installed Charles Pickering on the 5th Circuit Court via a recess appointment. Pickering, of course, has been filibustered by Democrats largely because of his lamentable record on civil rights.

But why do it today? After all, Congress has been in recess for over a month.

Let’s see: last year Bush decided to celebrate Martin Luther King’s birthday by announcing his opposition to affirmative action at the University of Michigan. This year he decided to appoint a judge universally reviled by civil rights groups.

Quite a coincidence, isn’t it?

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