President Bush's renomination of Charles Pickering for an appellate judgeship has Democrats steaming:

"Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York and a member of the Judiciary Committee, said today that he was astonished that Mr. Bush had renominated Judge Pickering."

"If they want to force us to filibuster and have that debate on the floor of the United States Senate, so be it," Mr. Schumer said. "We're ready." With Republicans in control of the Senate, 51-48-1, the Democrats do not have enough votes to defeat the nomination, but they do have the 41 votes needed to block any effort to break a filibuster."

Start talking, Senators. We're counting on you.

D'Accord: The New York Times has an editorial today on Pickering's re-nomination titled The Revenge of Trent Lott:

During last month's firestorm over Mr. Lott, Republicans tried to have it both ways on race. They appeased the majority of Americans, who were outraged at Mr. Lott's sympathetic words about segregation, by pressing him to resign as the Senate Republican leader. At the same time they winked at Mr. Lott's supporters by having prominent party members stand by him. More recently, they announced plans to award Mr. Lott a new position of honor by making him chairman of the Senate Rules and Administration Committee. Throughout the zigging and zagging it still seemed possible that the party would heed the advice of Bill Frist, the Senate's new G.O.P. leader, who said one of his priorities would be "ensuring that our agenda is inclusive of all Americans." That hope evaporated with the renomination of Judge Pickering and several other jurists with dubious records on racial issues. Senator Charles Schumer of New York, among others, has declared that he will use every weapon at his disposal to defeat Judge Pickering. Other Democrats should join in, as should moderate Republican senators, who insisted last month that Mr. Lott's views had no place in their party.