Fri Sep 25, 2009 at 11:00:00 AM EDT
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Paul Fishman is now just one vote away from becoming the next U.S. Attorney for New Jersey:Without questions nor debate, the committee unanimously moved the 52-year-old defense lawyer's nomination to the full Senate for a final vote. Fishman, who lives in Montclair, was nominated in June by President Obama.
Carl Tobias, a professor at the University of Richmond School of Law who specializes in judicial appointments, said committee approval is often perfunctory for non-controversial nominees.
Given the Democrats' majority in the Senate, the approval from the Judiciary Committee all but guarantees Fishman will be confirmed, Tobias said. He now awaits the vote before the Senate before he can replace Ralph Marra, who became acting U.S. Attorney when Chris Christie resigned from office to formally begin his campaign for Governor. Wally over at PNJ speculated about the time frame and factors that may come into play regarding how everything goes:Paul Fishman could be sworn in as United States Attorney within a week, although delays are inevitable - especially if Democrats prefer that the new federal prosecutor not be the one to sign off on requests for documents from Gov. Jon Corzine's re-election campaign.
The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee approved Fishman's nomination today. Now the full Senate must vote on his confirmation, which is expected to come on the next unanimous consent calendar vote. That could be as early as Tuesday. After that, President Barack Obama must formally sign his commission; that could happen on the same day as the Senate vote, or a few days after that. Then Fishman must arrange for a federal judge to swear him in; that also could happen immediately. We'll have to see at what pace everything progresses. It would be fascinating to see whether Fishman's office would be able to process the the public records requests that Marra's office hasn't produced because they're moving as fast as they can. |
| Jason Springer :: Fishman headed for full Senate vote to be next U.S. Attorney for New Jersey |
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