Bush judicial nominees face defeat

WASHINGTON -- Less than a year ago, federal judges Charles Pickering of Mississippi and D. Brooks Smith of Pennsylvania looked like shoo-ins for elevation to the U.S. Court of Appeals. No longer.

Today, Smith's nomination to the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia is in trouble and Pickering's nomination for the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans could be all but dead in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

"This may be a warm-up for the next Supreme Court nomination," said one of Smith's patrons, Republican Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania.

At stake could be the future direction -- right or left -- for a nearly equally divided Supreme Court as well as the entire federal judiciary.

The judges' patrons were powerful Republican senators -- including the then-Senate majority leader -- and neither judge was linked to anything particularly controversial.

When Democrats took over the Senate in June, they warned they would be tough on President Bush's judicial nominees they thought too conservative. Democrats said Republicans had thwarted or stalled many of former Democratic President Clinton's nominees with similar tactics when they controlled the Senate.

Also still fresh was the Supreme Court's 5-4 decision six months earlier cutting off ballot recounts in Florida and awarding the White House to Bush.

Republicans readied for battles over appellate nominees such as Miguel Estrada, Jeff Sutton, Michael McConnell and Terrance Boyle, who had connections to Bush or came with strong conservative credentials.

No one expected the furor over Pickering or Smith.

Pickering is a former Mississippi prosecutor and lawmaker who easily won Senate confirmation in 1990 for a lifetime appointment as a U.S. District Court judge. Smith was named a U.S. District Court judge in 1988 by former President Reagan.

Liberal groups started issuing news releases almost daily leading up to Smith's confirmation hearing last week. They attacked his handling of conflicts of interests and his interpretations of laws regarding the workplace, the disabled and the environment.