For the first time since the controversy began, Senate Democrats, who hold 47 seats, showed a united front today in support of the embattled nominee.

Senator Tom Daschle, the Democratic leader in the Senate, told President Bush today that he need not worry about getting confirmation for his cabinet choices, including John Ashcroft, the embattled nominee for attorney general, Mr. Bush's spokesman told reporters.

One other incident in Mr. Clinton's recent past suggests that when he offers seemingly half-hearted words of support for an embattled nominee, that person ought to not quit her current job too soon.

In approving a series of resolutions, A.F.L.-C.I.O. leaders reiterated their endorsement of Mr. Clinton's embattled nominee for Secretary of Labor, Alexis Herman.

Filibusters on judicial nominations are exceedingly rare and even the most embattled nominees in the Republican era needed only a simply majority of 51 votes to get on the bench.

President Bush's support of his embattled nominee in such a public fashion was an unusual event that is certain to be appreciated by Judge Pickering's supporters and many conservatives even if the nomination goes down to defeat.

They will hone their policy recommendations for President Clinton and debate whether to keep supporting Alexis M. Herman, the embattled nominee for Secretary of Labor.

A day after the state Bar Association declared Attorney General Peter G. Verniero unfit to fill a vacancy on the State Supreme Court, the Whitman administration pledged today to continue pushing for its increasingly embattled nominee to New Jersey's highest court.

Mr. Bush forcefully defended Mr. Bolton, his embattled nominee as United States ambassador to the United Nations, as "a blunt guy" who would shake up and reform an institution that Mr. Bush said was in dire need of an overhaul.

Mr. Bush, who returned to Washington Monday night, began efforts to help his embattled nominee today.