Pickering Nomination Rejected

The Democratic-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee voted along party lines Thursday to kill the appeals court nomination of Judge Charles Pickering, handing President Bush a stinging defeat in a racially charged confirmation battle.

In a series of roll calls, the panel also snubbed Bush's request to allow a vote in the full Senate on Pickering, a 64-year-old Mississippian with more than a decade on the bench.

Pickering "deserves better than to be blocked by a party-line vote of ten senators on one committee," Bush said in a statement issued moments after the panel voted. "The voice of the entire Senate deserves to be heard."