Throw back the throwback Pickering

A few judicial nominees deserve to be Borked, and Charles W. Pickering Sr. is one. If Pickering were just a throwback to the worst days of Jim Crow, it would be one thing, but as recently as 1994, he argued that prosecutors should go easy on a man convicted of burning a cross on the lawn of an interracial couple and shooting into their house.

The worst part is that Pickering made his argument, in secret entreaties to the Justice Department, as the U.S. district judge in Mississippi hearing the case.

Pickering is clearly not qualified for his current judicial post. Now, President Bush has nominated Pickering for elevation to the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi.

A closely divided Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to vote on Pickering's nomination tomorrow. The committee should reject it, and the few moderate Republicans on the panel should join in sending the White House a message that this kind of judicial foolishness will not be tolerated.