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A recent meeting between two senior Hamas officials and former undersecretary of state Thomas R. Pickering was coordinated and promoted by the US State Department, according to the Arabic weekly, Al-Ahram. Mr. Pickering met with senior Hamas officials, Mahmoud al-Zahar and Bassem Naim in Geneva in mid-June. The Washington Post reported that the Hamas officials had said they believed the meeting "represented an opening in relations with the Obama administration." However, US officials said they had only learned of the meeting afterward: They said Pickering had not been asked to approach Hamas and had no official standing; U.S. officials learned...

JACKSON, Miss. – The estranged wife of former U.S. Rep. Chip Pickering claims in a lawsuit that the Mississippi Republican had an affair that ruined their marriage and derailed his political career. Leisha Pickering said in the lawsuit filed this week that her husband and the woman dated in college, reconnected and began having an affair while he was in Congress and living in a building where several Christian lawmakers reside on C Street near the U.S. Capitol. Chip Pickering is the third Republican with ties to the building at 133 C Street SE to find his personal life making...

Link only, due to copyright restrictions: http://www.clarionledger.com/article/20090716/NEWS/90716027/-1/Nletter03/Ex-Miss.-politician-s-wife-sues-alleged-mistress?source=nletter-news

Maybe we’re looking in the wrong direction on this whole NSA issue. I can’t help but think that for the Dems to go to such lengths, there has to be some campaign money in it for them. Just like they pander to the far left whackos I.E. Moveon.org, maybe they also have to protect themselves as well as pander to some of their big money supporters who may not want their overseas calls monitored by the Bush administration. This is just a first attempt to connect some dots, but it is interesting. Let’s start with Judge Robertson and the Clintons....

A young Mississauga man has pleaded guilty to intending to cause an explosion, the first time a member of the so-called Toronto 18 group has admitted the existence of a bomb plot. At a trial last year of a co-accused, prosecutors alleged some of the group's members were planning to bomb sites such as the Toronto Stock Exchange, RCMP headquarters in Ottawa, the Pickering nuclear power station and the Toronto offices of Canada's spy agency, located next to the CN Tower. In an unexpected move, Saad Khalid, 22, entered his plea on Monday but Justice Bruce Durno banned publication of...

WASHINGTON, April 14 (UPI) -- The United States and Iran have been conducting behind-the-scenes discussions for five years on Iran's nuclear program, a former U.S. diplomat said. Retired U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Thomas Pickering, one of the participants in the talks, said former U.S. diplomats and experts had met with Iranian academics and policy advisers "in a lot of different places, although not in the U.S. or Iran," The Independent reported Monday.

By Judi McLeod Tuesday, March 25, 2008 In an effort to provide them a fair trial, the Canadian government is seeking a limited publication ban on the identities of the adults charged with belonging to the so-called “Toronto 18” group. The identity of the youth charged with belonging to a homegrown terror cell is already protected under the Young Criminal Justice Act. The trial for the youth gets underway in a Brampton court today. Almost unheard of since they were nabbed in a foiled undercover operation to kidnap and behead members of Parliament, among other things on June 2, 2006,...

The latest word out of the Magnolia State is that Gov. Haley Barbour (R) is likely to pick either US Rep. Chip Pickering (R) or US Rep. Roger Wicker (R) to succeed Minority Whip Trent Lott (R) as the next US Senator from Mississippi. On the Democratic side, the scuttlebutt is that former Attorney General Mike Moore, probably the most electable politico among the state’s beleaguered Democrats, has decided that he will run, setting up what is likely to be a fierce, well-funded competition that is sure to receive national attention. Whether Barbour will choose Pickering or Wicker is still...

Surveys are already underway in Mississippi to find out who Mississippians think is the "hot" name to serve in Sen. Trent Lott's seat until a special election is held in November 2008. The list is a virtual who's who of Mississippi politics, past and present. From former governors to a former attorney general to present office holders, both in Washington and Jackson. The political consulting firm, Zata 3, polled voters in all four congressional districts. Zata 3 works for Democrats and the survey was not weighted for age, race or gender. The firm polled almost 1,400 voters and found Cong....

In a longshot campaign to use Sen. Trent Lott's retirement as a slap to Democrats, Bush allies are pushing for Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour to choose retired federal Judge Charles Pickering, rejected by Democrats for higher office, as Lott's replacement in the Senate. "It would be the biggest in-your-face move if it happened," said one proponent of the move. Pickering was nominated for a federal appeals court post in 2002 but was blocked, in part because of his antiabortion position as well as charges of racial insensitivity. He was renominated and given a recess appointment but eventually withdrew his name....

Mississippi Sen. Trent Lott announced Monday he will leave a 35-year career in Congress in which he epitomized the Republicans' political takeover of the South after the civil rights struggles of the 1960s. Another Mid-South legislator, Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., said later Monday he would not seek Lott's position as minority whip after a spokesman had said earlier that Alexander was considering it.In stepping down, Lott said he wanted to leave on a "positive note" after winning re-election last year to a leadership post and fostering legislation for rebuilding the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina. The announcement caught many by...

JACKSON -- Republican U.S. Rep. Chip Pickering said publicly for the first time Friday that he might have his eye on the Governor's Mansion. "Maybe," Pickering said, responding to a question about whether he might run for the top job in state government -- a move that would be at least four years away. Pickering was explaining his decision not to seek re-election in 2008. And there was this response to a question about the longtime speculation that he might want to run for U.S. Senate: "As my oldest son would say, 'when the bridge crosses the river, we'll get...

Just announced on Fox News. Rather unexpected, I think. I figured he'd be the heir apparent to Lott or Cochran.

Mention the name Charles Pickering to anyone but the most committed news junkie, and you’re apt to get a blank look or, at best, one of dim recognition. In the era of the 24-hour news cycle aimed at the ever-shortening attention span, the bitter Senate battles over the federal judiciary in which Pickering played so dramatic a part a few years back can seem like ancient history. But with the publication of A Price Too High, Pickering’s insider account of the nearly four years he spent in limbo as a nominee to the federal bench, as Democrats and their press...

Mention the name Charles Pickering to anyone but the most committed news junkie, and you’re apt to get a blank look or, at best, one of dim recognition.....snip....But with the publication of A Price Too High, Pickering’s insider account of the nearly four years he spent in limbo as a nominee to the federal bench, as Democrats and their press enablers trashed his record and reputation, we’re reminded of how extraordinarily much is at stake in the ongoing battle for control of the nation’s courts

During the hearings on the Supreme Court nomination of Justice Sam Alito, a good and decent man, the American public saw the raw, ugly underside of the judicial confirmation battle: Ted Kennedy's self-righteous, judgmental, holier-than-thou grilling of Judge Alito, and Mrs. Alito's obvious hurt over how her husband was treated. With good lawyers making far more money than federal judges, with nominees now facing a virtual firing squad at confirmation, it is no wonder studies now show half of those approached about being nominated to the federal judiciary say "no thanks." And it is not surprising the "brightest and best"...

Judge Charles Pickering was appointed to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in a recess appointment by President Bush, after years of battling senators over his confirmation. Pickering has now written a book about his experience. At Jones County Junior College in Ellisville, Miss., Judge Charles Pickering offered powerful insight into his fight for judicial confirmation. Pickering released "Supreme Chaos," his thoughts and ideals on what is wrong with the entire judicial confirmation process, and he touches on what he believes was a crusade against his appointment.

Link only thanks to the losers at Gannett.

Excerpts: An ultimate State Department Arabist 25 December 2005 BITTERLEMONS-INTERNATIONAL Middle East Roundtable:22 Dec,'05: "The main concern is terrorism" by Thomas R.Pickering* QUOTES FROM TEXT: "To some extent, those bent on understanding and reconciliation in the United States face not only their own limitations in influence ... but those of their colleagues and friends within the circle of Islam. Leadership there seems to have been hijacked by the extremists "mesmerized by the words 'Judeo-Christian heritage', they seek to find common cause with the Jewish presence in the Holy Land." "denial that the Allah of Islam is the shared common God...

Chief Justice Rehnquist, stalwart defender of a strict interpretation of our Constitution is dead. He served this Nation well and stubbornly fought against the debilitating illness that eventually took him. He deserves our great respect. However, his passing now opens up the door to what, judging from demonRATS most recent past performances, will be an exercise in assorted acrimonious displays by the professional whiners and their organized legions of left-leaning loonies. Mr. President, I inplore you to, as soon as possible, hold a press conference so that all the Nation and world may see and hear you to make the...

The Man Behind the Attack on Guantanamo By Rocco DiPippo FrontPageMagazine.com | June 16, 2005 The general leading the force to free the captive enemy from the U.S. detention center in Guantanamo Bay, and inflict a humiliating defeat on the United States is so-called “civil rights” and “Constitutional” attorney Michael Ratner. It was Ratner who led the way in recruiting elite lawyers to defend the enemy combatants being interrogated at Gitmo. But Ratner is a long-time leader of two pro-Communist and anti-American organizations who have for decades have lent aid and comfort to America's enemies in the Cold War and...

Chip Pickering introduces legislation to formalize agreement between broadcasters and satellite providers regarding local media transmissions WASHINGTON DC - Today Congressman Chip Pickering (R-Mississippi) introduced the Local Emergency Radio Service Preservation Act of 2005 (HR998). The legislation would codify an agreement between radio broadcasters and satellite radio companies to prevent future encroachment of satellite radio into local market content without the appropriate community commitment and responsibility. "I believe in a diverse media with local, community voice," Pickering said. "I also subscribe to satellite radio for national media and programming. This legislation would ensure consumers continue to have access to both...

Give us more power, says GOP class of '94 By Alexander Bolton The GOP freshman class of 1994 is growing restless and dissatisfied with being frozen out of leadership positions in the House. Members of that revolutionary class, which came to Congress 74 strong 11 years ago, are talking among themselves about the need to become more outspoken and to take at least an informal leadership role within the Republican caucus. They held a reunion last weekend in Scottsdale, Ariz., where they reminisced about their capture of nearly 50 Democratic seats a decade ago and the triumphs and disappointments of...

My nomination and permanent appointment to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has been pending before the full Senate for more than one year. The recess appointment given to me by President Bush on January 16, 2004 expires when Congress adjourns. Opposition by some Democratic senators prevented an up or down vote on my nomination. A minority of senators prevented the majority from confirming me to a permanent position on the Fifth Circuit. The actions of the minority leave me with no alternative than to retire as Congress adjourns. I thank Senator Trent Lott for fighting for my nomination. He...

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) - Federal judge Charles Pickering, appointed by President Bush less than a year ago without Congressional approval, said Wednesday he will step down from the bench. President Bush elevated Pickering, 67, with a recess appointment in January, which temporarily sidestepped the confirmation process. Some Democrats accused Pickering of being racially insensitive and harboring anti-abortion views. Such recess appointments, which need no Senate confirmation, are valid only until the next Congress takes office, in this case in January 2005. Democrats could have tied up his permanent nomination when Congress next meets. "The actions of the minority leave me...

With three weeks to Election Day, it is time for Republicans to close the deal with swing voters -- independents, Southern and Midwestern moderates, blue-collar households, Catholics, and Hispanics. The tactics of Senate Democrats and their liberal allies are now so nakedly partisan that the judiciary could well become the issue that wins tight Senate races and presidential battleground states for the GOP. (A secondary benefit of campaigning on this issue is that it establishes a clear "judiciary mandate" -- an advantage when addressing the Senate's rule for filibusters and a bonus when the time comes to nominate a Supreme...

The heated exchange on Thursday took place at about 7:50pm EDT as the group sat in MSNBC's outdoor set up near Madison Square Garden. The MRC's Geoff Dickens took down the highlights: Chris Matthews: "You know the old question in every political campaign is do you go hard or do you go soft? David Gergen. That fella just went hard. Was that smart?" David Gergen: "He went hate, he didn't go hard. That was a speech, in contrast to Dick Cheney's speech which was well within the bounds of political discourse and it was a tough speech. And, and, and...

Jackson, MS) - The man John Kerry tapped to be his running mate forgot his roots to further his career by smearing Mississippi and an honorable Mississippian, says State GOP Chairman Jim Herring. "Mississippi voters won't forget John Edwards' shameless distortions of Judge Charles Pickering's record or his vicious attacks on Judge Pickering's character," said Herring. As a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Edwards led Senate opposition to President Bush's nomination of Pickering to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. Democrats on the Judiciary Committee blocked Pickering's nomination to the court for over a year until President Bush bypassed...

May 6, 2002 8:45 a.m. The Trials of John Edwards The presidential hopeful says he's not like all those bad trial lawyers. Really? alk to Republicans in politics, and you'll get a lurid picture of top trial lawyers riding around in private planes and giving lots of money to Democratic politicians, in order to insure that there won't be any legislative limits placed on their sky-high damage awards," writes Nicholas Lemann in a New Yorker profile of the Democratic senator and presidential hopeful John Edwards. "It would therefore be natural for Republicans to assume that the way to beat John...

TORONTO - An anti-terrorism probe that led to the arrest of 19 Pakistani men, including one who took commercial flight training over a nuclear power plant, highlights security holes that should have been plugged after the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks, Ontario officials said. The Public Security and Anti-Terrorism Unit, a federal national security task force, quietly arrested the group of mostly young men last week. The men appear to have used fraudulent student visas to enter Canada or to maintain their residency here. Federal authorities documented a pattern of suspicious behaviour that shows an interest in Ontario's nuclear generators...

Will Chuck Schumer, or any anti-Pickering revilers, finally apologize to the judge? When George W. Bush placed embattled Federal District Judge Charles Pickering on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals on January 16 through a temporary recess appointment, the January 24 lead editorial in Newsday proclaimed: "The most damning strike against Pickering was his decision to intervene with prosecutors in 1994 to gain leniency for a man convicted of burning a cross on a mixed-race couple's lawn." And in the Senate, Ted Kennedy said the recess appointment "serves only to emphasize again this administration's shameful opposition to civil rights." From...

Liberty Beatby Nat HentoffMike Wallace, the RedeemerCBS's 60 Minutes takes the case, and judge Charles Pickering gets his reputation backApril 23rd, 2004 5:00 PM Mike Wallace and Charles Pickering(photo: 60 Minutes) n March 28, the 16.7 million viewers of CBS's 60 Minutes saw Mike Wallace engage in one of the most valuable acts of journalism. Too often, the multiplex media circulate character assassinations from politicians and other reckless sources without doing their own investigating to get the facts straight. Other journalists can be the last resort for the victims of the calumnies. In his report, "Judge Charles Pickering," Mike Wallace...

I was all set to turn off 60 Minutes last night after its first segment -- a too-brief and entirely anticlimactic interview with Condoleezza Rice -- but if I had, I would have missed a small miracle. Judge Charles Pickering finally got the public hearing he deserved, and the competence, courage, and decency of the man shined through. Pickering was nominated by President Bush to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2001, but his appointment was blocked by Senate Democrats through 2003. Finally in January of this year, Bush made a recess appointment for Pickering. But when that...

William Pickering, Key U.S. Figure in Space Race, Dead at 93 Mar 16, 2004 By Andrew Bridges/ The Associated Press PASADENA, Calif. (AP) - William H. Pickering, who as director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the dawn of the space age oversaw the launch of the first U.S. satellite, has died, lab officials said Tuesday. He was 93. Pickering, who twice appeared on the cover of Time magazine, died of pneumonia Monday at his home in suburban La Canada Flintridge, JPL said. "Dr. Pickering was one of the titans of our nation's space program," JPL director Charles Elachi said....

One of the first men to receive a recess appointment tried to drown himself in a river and said it would be better if the man who appointed him — President George Washington — would die rather than sign a historic treaty. The incident forecasted the tumult and controversy that surrounds recess appointments to this day — the latest example being President Bush’s controversial recess appointment of Judge William Pryor to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday. Washington made three recess appointments to district courts. In 1795, he named John Rutledge by this method to serve as chief...

<p>Minority members of the Senate Judiciary Committee are prepared to "express their concerns" Thursday about President Bush's decision to recess appoint Charles Pickering (search) to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, Democratic sources on the committee told Fox News.</p> <p>Even as Democrats prepare to cooperate on the Senate floor and decline to filibuster the long-awaited omnibus spending bill, four Democrats on the panel are planning to bring up the issue of Pickering's appointment at the top of a hearing to confirm several non-controversial Bush nominees, the sources said.</p>

On Saturday, the Washington Post ran an editorial titled "End Run for Mr. Pickering," lamenting President Bush's decision to recess-appoint Judge Charles W. Pickering to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. His actions were a direct response to the Democrats' continued filibuster of Pickering's nomination. Instead of simply acknowledging that President Bush was fully within his right to make the appointment and that, even though they disagreed with Pickering's nomination, the President is right to circumvent a filibustering, stonewalling minority of Senators who won't allow a vote on the nomination to fill the vacancy classified as a "judicial emergency" by...

PRESIDENT BUSH'S decision Friday to install controversial judicial nominee Charles W. Pickering Sr. on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit using a recess appointment is yet another unwarranted escalation of the judicial nomination wars. We have lamented some of the attacks on Mr. Pickering, but his record as a federal trial judge is undistinguished and downright disturbing, and Senate Democrats are reasonable to oppose his nomination. Installing him using a constitutional end run around the Senate only inflames passions. The right path is to build consensus that nonpartisanship and excellence are the appropriate criteria for judicial selection....

NOW Outraged by Bush's Underhanded Appointment of Pickering January 16, 2004 "The National Organization for Women is outraged by George W. Bush's installation of Charles Pickering on the federal appeals court while Congress is in recess," said NOW President Kim Gandy. "We're no longer surprised by the underhandedness of this President—Bush apparently thinks that he can act unilaterally wherever and whenever he pleases." "NOW has vigorously opposed Pickering's nomination to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals for more than two years, and the Senate Judiciary Committee rejected this foe of women's rights once before," said Gandy. "We will certainly work...

Statement from John Kerry on Bush’s Recess Appointment of Charles Pickering January 16, 2004 For Immediate Release “Last year on Martin Luther King's birthday, George Bush fought to roll back affirmative action. It is outrageous that yet again, one day after laying a wreath on Martin Luther King's grave, George W. Bush is unilaterally installing a man on a federal appeals court who advocated tirelessly on behalf of a cross-burner. Yet again, this Bush Administration is ignoring the will of the people and threatening civil rights on behalf of right wing ideologues. We need a President who respects the people...

<p>WASHINGTON — President Bush used his executive authority Friday to bypass Senate Democrats and install District Judge Charles Pickering (search) on the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals.</p> <p>The recess appointment, confirmed by Fox News on Friday, allows Pickering to skip confirmation by the deadlocked Senate and hold the seat until the next Congress takes office, which will be in January 2005.</p>

There were two sure bets going into Thursday's meeting of the Senate Judiciary Committee. One was that Charles Pickering, the embattled nominee for a place on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, would be approved by a straight party-line vote. The other was that Democrats would spend a great deal of time discussing Pickering's alleged "insensitivity" to racial issues. It could hardly have been otherwise; after all, Democrats have been making the charges since Pickering was first nominated on May 25, 2001. Still, some Republican eyes rolled when Vermont Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy suggested that even the timing of the...

WASHINGTON (AP) President Bush sidesteps Congress and names Mississippi Judge Charles Pickering to federal appeals court, sources say.

This is posted as breaking news on msnbc's website. Did a search and didn't see it anywhere. Nothing follows for now. Anyone know anything?

On February 11, 1801, the House of Representatives was called upon to break a tie in the Electoral College in which Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr had each received 73 votes, besting the incumbent, John Adams, who got only 65. Seven days and 36 ballots later, the House elected Jefferson to the presidency. Before the week was out, Adams wrote to him: "I shall leave in the stables of the United States seven Horses and two Carriages with Harness. These may not be suitable for you: but they will certainly save you a considerable Expense." With this gesture of federal...

This morning, we know for sure: the Senate Republicans are serious about President Bush’s judicial nominees. There had been some question. Up until 6 PM last night, all the Majority Leader Bill Frist and his staff had to offer was talk. We heard from the Senator’s senior advisor that Frist had an “itchy trigger finger” to get something done about the nominees being filibustered by his Democrat colleagues. Months ago, they told us to “get ready for hardball.” Even before that, it was “Anything is possible, nothing is off the table.” And so when Frist’s staff told us last week,...

For the last several months, liberals have entertained themselves by making a mockery of the federal judicial confirmation process. Anyone paying even a modicum of attention realizes that the fight over these nominations is based mainly (solely, one could argue) on the issue of abortion. The Left, including Senate Democrats and groups like NARAL, have treated nominees like Priscilla Owen, Carolyn Kuhl, Janice Rogers Brown, Bill Pryor, Charles Pickering, and Miguel Estrada with utter disdain. They have labeled these men and women as "extremists," "anti-woman," "radically right-wing," "far-right judicial activists," "virulently anti-choice," "out-of-the-mainstream judges," "conservative ideologues," "controversial," and "hostile." On...

<p>The governor's election in Mississippi tomorrow will be the Republicans' first major opportunity to test how much voters care that Democrats are filibustering some of President Bush's judicial nominations.</p> <p>If the issue sticks, Republicans are ready with blocked nominees — several representing the Democratic Party's most crucial constituencies — to use as the faces of what they call "Democratic obstruction" in next year's presidential and senatorial elections.</p>