Judge nomination dead, Daschle says

WASHINGTON -- The expected rejection by a Senate committee of one of President Bush's picks for the U.S. Court of Appeals would kill the nomination, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle said Sunday.

Bush wants to elevate U.S. District Judge Charles Pickering of Mississippi to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans. But Democrats are expected to defeat the nomination 10-9 on a party-line vote this week in the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Daschle, D-S.D., noted that Democrats and Republicans previously had agreed that only Supreme Court nominees who failed in the committee could be voted on by the full Senate -- "and I'm willing to maintain that commitment for whatever length of time I'm majority leader," he said on "Fox News Sunday."

Pickering, a former Mississippi prosecutor and lawmaker, easily won Senate confirmation in 1990 for a lifetime appointment as a U.S. District Court judge, but has faced criticism from women's, civil rights and liberal groups.

"This is a good man, well-educated," and he "has been a good judge," said Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott, Pickering's biggest sponsor.

"He has shown courage in the race area, and as a matter of fact has been a uniter, not a divider. And it's a tragedy the way he has been treated," Lott, R-Miss., said on NBC's "Meet the Press."

Pickering's defeat, he said, would "probably contribute to a continuing deterioration of how we handle judicial nominations."