Partly, but also because there are so many cases and so few judges. A problem that just gets worse in times of tight budgets.
Oh, certainly. Sometimes people will never believe something they’re convinced can’t happen. 
Yup… and he isn’t the only one I’m sure.
It’s gotta be difficult impeaching someone without the damaging the whole Dem machine.
Every time I have been involved with the court system (corporate litigation, jury duty) I thought the courts were staggeringly inefficient. It looked like most of the courtrooms were empty by 11am, and almost all by 3pm, even though almost all the courtrooms started off with a judge at 9:00am or 8:30am. In two instances, we had a trial scheduled for 9:00am, and there was some issue with proceeding, and the judge agreed to continue the case until some future date. In each case it appeared that the courtroom was done for the day. While we were leaving the officials were locking everything up. In one case we met the judge in the parking lot a few minutes later. He apparently was done for the day. I couldn’t have been much later than 9:30.
My experiences have been in Kansas, Georgia and Massachusetts.
:rolleyes: Your concern is appreciated. Go hang out here, why don’tcha. Run along, now.
You’re mistaken if you think that means the judges are just hanging out in their chambers smoking dope. Most of the work involved in any case – judges’ work and attorneys’ work – takes place outside the courtroom.
Would you judge how hard-working are the cast and crew of a Broadway show, by the amount of time they spend actually performing for audiences?
Outside the courtroom, yes. But not outside the courthouse, for judges. In every courthouse I am familiar with the judge’s chambers are in the courthouse building.
When I was unemployed for a spell, I was able to play golf on weekdays quite often, and I would ask the pro-shop to call me whenever someone needed a fourth. I don’t know what proportion of the total population is employed as judges, but I would be willing to bet it is a dramatically smaller number than I observed in those weeks on the course.
Almost every other threesome I was added to were retirees. But in three weeks I played with one or more judges on three occasions.
I often hear the same kind of defence of tenured professors, but from my personal observation of their personal lives, they have a staggering amount of leisure time. It occurs for the same reasons. Their only real controls come from others in the same secure positions. No one has any incentive to increase the workload or rock the boat in any way.
Indeed – we may have an argument here about the (un)desirability of legalistic procedural requirements in the ** political **process of an impeachment, but let’s not get carried away and tar the proceedings of the actual trial courts with the same brush. Justice delayed is justice denied, but so is justice rushed. In the trial courts, ideally you want to provide a reasonably prompt trial but one in which the deciders have enough time to make a well-pondered decision and all the parties have the time to bring forth all their evidence.
There you go again, putting words in my mouth … I’m not the least bit concerned about the Dem’s plight.
Anecdote from the State of West Virginia:
When I was younger and sillier, I got into minor legal trouble. My summons said to be at the magistrate’s office at 9am for trial. I was at my attorney’s office at 8:30 (he was within walking distance to the courthouse) and asked if he was ready to go. He told me to relax that they “wouldn’t be in until later”.
I was astounded. I didn’t want to get arrested for failing to appear, so I told my attorney that I was leaving, and if he wasn’t there I would beat his ass (yes, remember, young and silly)
So, I get to the courthouse at 8:50 and it is locked up tighter than the hubs of hell. At 10:35 the magistrates, their staff, and MY attorney all walk in carrying cups of coffee, laughing and chatting. I’m ready to piss myself.
I’m expecting a Perry Mason moment shortly, but my attorney told me to have a seat in the hall. I could hear him around the corner talking to the magistrate about last night’s football game, a new movie that just came out, and how his wife wanted to get together with HIS wife next weekend…blah, blah, blah.
About ten minutes later, my attorney comes around the corner with a form that states that if I stay out of trouble for the next six months that the charges will be dismissed and that the arrest would be expunged. The form was signed by the magistrate.
There was no witnesses, only one prosecutor who was carrying three briefcases full of paperwork, and couldn’t have cared less if I was a child molester. There was a block that stated why the prosecution agreed to dismissal, and it said that defendant “had no prior convictions”.
Looking back, I wonder how anyone ever got their first conviction in that jurisdiction.
Anyhoo. I had lunch, was looking over my paperwork, and my original $2,500 bond had been reduced to R.O.R (release on recognizance). I went back to the courthouse to get my bond money back. At 1:15pm, it was locked as tight as it was that morning…
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081231/ap_on_re_us/illinois_governor_indictment
Short article that confirms what people are saying. Both sides need more time than simply a couple of days to talk to witnesses and gather evidence and do research.
AIUI, the committee will present its report Tuesday and the whole House will vote Wednesday. On to the trial in the Senate!