Mickey Kaus sees red when he suspects the New York Times is guilty of cherry picking "average citizens" to back up the paper's supposed liberal bias in its news articles. But he's certainly guilty of the same thing in marshalling support for his endorsement of Charles Pickering. Kaus quotes this Times article titled "Blacks at Home Support a Judge Liberals Assail." Waving the news clipping like a winning Lotto ticket, Mini-Mick crows, "One reason I think the case against Charles Pickering is weak -- on the race issue, anyway -- is the support he's received from African-Americans in his home town."

But not so fast. Mac Diva reminds us of a John Nichols column in The Nation from the last Pickering go-round. Nichols sums up his findings as follows:

The Mississippi State Conference of the NAACP is actively opposing Pickering's nomination. So are the state NAACP organizations in Louisiana and Texas -- the other two states that make up the 5th Circuit. "We hope to God that (Pickering) doesn't make it," explains L.A. Warren, chair of the Mississippi NAACP's Legal Redress Committee. "We know his past."

The Magnolia Bar Association, an organization of African-American lawyers in Mississippi, opposes the Pickering nomination. So too does US Rep. Bennie Thompson, the state's only African-American congressman. Thompson has been attacked in Washington and at home in Mississippi by conservative columnists -- especially writers for the Jackson Clarion-Ledger, a newspaper with a record as dubious as Pickering's when it comes to segregation fights. The critics claimed that, in opposing Pickering's nomination, the congressman had exposed himself as a pawn of northern liberals who was out of touch with his African-American constituents. These attacks were merely more of the pro-Pickering political spin, however. Last week, 31 African-American members of the Mississippi legislature signed a letter opposing Pickering's nomination.

And the Times article Mick likes involves a fair amount of cherry-picking itself. Judge Pickering solicited the endorsement of the four African-American City Councilmen who endorsed hiim, and placed "their letters are on file with the Senate Judiciary Committee." Which is not to say that Pickering's local supporters aren't sincere. Pickering obviously has been shrewd enough to cultivate local support, and not broadcast his true views locally. The Times article acknowledges that "[m]any local residents said they were not familiar with [Pickering's controversial] statements."

Ultimately, whether Pickering is popular in his home town simply isn't relevant. The Fifth Circuit bench isn't a constituent-service position and it isn't a popularity contest. It's about "administer[ing] justice without respect to persons, and do[ing] equal right to the poor and to the rich, and ... faithfully and impartially discharg[ing] and perform[ing] all the duties" of a federal judge.