Bush uses recess appointment power again to dismay of Democrats

WASHINGTON -- After three years of watching Senate Democrats block his judicial nominees, President Bush trumped them for the second time this year by installing Alabama Attorney General William Pryor on the federal appeals court.

The move infuriated Democrats, who now may be even less likely to cooperate with the White House on getting judicial nominees through the closely divided Senate in an election year.

"Regularly circumventing the advise and consent process is not the way to change the tone in Washington," Sen. Charles Schumer, a Democrat from New York, said.

Bush on Friday gave Pryor an almost two-year stint on the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta, calling him a "leading American lawyer" and saying Democrats had used "unprecedented obstructionist tactics" last year to stop him and five other nominees.

Pryor's chances didn't look any better this year, with Democrats already saying they plan to invoke a Senate tradition that only non-controversial nominees are approved during an election year.

"Their tactics are inconsistent with the Senate's constitutional responsibility and are hurting our judicial system," Bush said.

Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., one of the senior members of the Judiciary Committee, called Bush's going around the Senate "a flagrant abuse of presidential power."

"This is an outrageous appointment, of a nominee who has questionable commitment to the authority of the Supreme Court and the rule of law," Kennedy said.

Last month, Bush did the same thing with Mississippi federal Judge Charles Pickering, appointing him to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans.

Bush picked Pryor last April for a seat on the 11th Circuit that covers Alabama, Georgia and Florida.

Abortion rights advocates immediately opened a campaign against the nominee, citing his criticism of the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision that said women had a constitutional right to terminate pregnancy.

Pryor also came under fire for filing a Supreme Court brief in a Texas sodomy case comparing homosexual acts to "prostitution, adultery, necrophilia, bestiality, possession of child pornography and even incest and pedophilia."

Democratic presidential contender Sen. John Edwards said Pryor "has a long record of vigorous efforts to deny Americans' basic rights under our laws."

"This is one more example of why we need a new president," said Edwards, D-N.C., a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Some Senate Republicans want Bush to bypass the Senate again and put the rest of his blocked nominees on the court.

"President Bush is showing that he will use all the power available to him to appoint highly qualified judges," said Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala.

Republicans have been unsuccessful in five attempts, the last one in November, at breaking through the parliamentary blockade that Democrats erected against Pryor's nomination.

Besides Pickering and Pryor, Democrats also have used filibusters to block Bush's appeals court nominations of Judge Priscilla Owen, Hispanic lawyer Miguel Estrada and judges Carolyn Kuhl and Janice Rogers Brown. Estrada withdrew his nomination in September.

The Constitution gives the president authority to install nominees in office when Congress is not in session. Both the Senate and House were out this week for the Presidents Day holiday. But the appointments are good only until the end of the next session of Congress, in this case the end of 2005.

Pryor, 41, is a founder of the Republican Attorneys General Association, which raises money for GOP attorneys general.

He also led the charge to oust the state's chief justice, Roy Moore, for refusing to abide by federal court orders requiring him to move a Ten Commandments monument from his courthouse.