Don Williams Sounds As If He’s Running For Something

Thursday January 15, 2009

During the fulminating arguments over the reappointment of a controversial Superior Court judge last night, Senate President Pro Tem Don Williams, D-Brooklyn, sounded as if he had been transported to a stump speech in a campaign for governor.
Or even a run for a judicial nomination for himself, although in Connecticut we don’t elect judges. We launder them through the Judicial Selection Committee, then the governor and the House and Senate leaders do some horse trading before they’re officially nominated.
Lt. Gov. Mike Fedele ended up breaking the 18-18 tie and Patricia Swords of Storrs got another eight-year term, over the opposition of many Democrats including Sen. Ed Gomes, D-Bridgeport. Most criticism against her included charges of a pro-prosecutor bias. She is a former prosecutor.
Williams, who like every third legislator in the Capitol is a lawyer, voted in favor of Swords.
“Let us put down a rule today,” Williams said, waving his hands like a conductor, “that we will disregard that unfair slide into tyranny when we’re talking about something as so important as the independence of our Judicial Branch.”