The abbreviated process aside, she appears to be a highly qualified selection for the family law position. It's not an easy job in good times, but must be especially challenging with the shrinking diversion resources available under current conditions. We should all wish her the best of luck. Now if we could only figure out how to fund a new courthouse, so we can close the old one before it falls down on our judiciary. The existing one seems like it was built around the same time Dickens was writing "A Christmas Carol" It has been subdivided so many times to add new courtroom space that some of the courtrooms are barely larger than the new loos in the Pearl.

He was elected by the people of Oregon to be the Governor for 8 years; not 7 years and 357 days. Why shouldn't he finish out the job we are paying him to do? I agree with the above post, she is highly qualified in family law, and the people of Multnomah County are fortunate to have her sitting on the bench.

Her qualifications aside, it nevertheless raises questions of why Ted found it so necessary to dispense with the usual process and expedite this appointment to get it in under the wire, rather than simply leaving the appointment for the new Governor. One can't help but think this is patronage to a friend at the very least.

Well, it's either patronage for Governor Kulongoski to dispense, or it's patronage for Governor Kitzhaber to dispense.

These nominations deserve much more process than... well, none.

Spend a day in the courtroom of Judge Adrienne Nelson before you argue that his appointments are anything other than patronage.

Having spent a decade as a nobody land use lawyer representing nobodies, I have seen nothing inconsistent with the opinion I formed that the entire justice system in the metro area is based on patronage.

Appointments like this, and the fact that Teresa Schmidt, a qualified OSB executive director, was removed in August and replaced by long-time flunky, Sylvia Stevens, bodes very ill for the prospect of meaningful change in the near future.

A judge I sort of distantly knew once loved to answer honestly when anyone -- and I mean anyone, including fairly young kids -- asked how one became a judge (this judge was a circuit court judge appointed to the state court of appeals):

The answer was always something like "You give lots of money to the Governor's party and help the Governor get elected."

And you know what, so far as I know, nobody ever died of hearing truth committed right out there in public like that.

Years ago I heard the delightful definition of a federal judge as "a lawyer who knew a senator."