Earlier today, the Judiciary Committee approved Judge Chatigny's nomination to the Second Circuit and sent it for a vote on the full Senate floor. Mostly objective coverage can be found here and here and here.
Unsurprisingly, the vote was along party lines. I guess I shouldn't say unsurprisingly since I did previously express doubts that the Democrats were going to let him hang to dry. I guess I did not understand the politics here and party loyalty won out. He also does have the support of the CT Senators and many federal prosecutors, including many appointed during Republican administrations.
But the Republicans took full advantage of the committee vote to come down hard on Chatigny, again. For example, here's a quote from Senator Kyl, R, of Arizona: "He doesn't keep the interests of victims at heart .... His empathy is all for the defendants. There is something wrong with him if he cannot exercise the faith and responsibility that we have placed in him and acknowledge that there are other parties in the case before him than the defendant … I see Chatigny's empathy very misplaced." Not sure exactly what he is talking about, but it definitely qualifies as harsh criticism.
I am curious to see what the final vote on the floor will look like. Assuming that it happens before the mid-term elections (a big assumption), I am sure he will get enough votes. But it probably won't be more than a bare majority, if I had to guess.
And as expected, there was some rightwing head explosions, but not as many as I hoped. For example, some over-the-top rhetoric can be found at this link, in which someone described him as a judge with an "empathy for sadists." Nice. More can be found here, where Chatigny is castigated for reducing sentences for convicted rapists and child pornographers. And here's an opinion piece from earlier in the week in the Washington Times saying that the nomination should be withdrawn since Chatigny is evil incarnate. Okay, it doesn't say that. But it says that he is a "disgrace" and a "terrible judge." Actually the opinion piece was from the same person who was quoted in the first link. I guess she made her way around the right wing echo chamber this week.
I was hoping for more. Maybe on the eve of the floor vote the right will rev up its anger again. I'll keep everyone updated.
Comments