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</div><div>=</div><div><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The End Game</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 14px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><br style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 14px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">CCA’s public relations campaign proved to be too little too late. The Tennessean, the Nashville Scene and the Associated Press all ran articles casting doubt on Puryear’s judicial nomination. The Nashville Post reported that Puryear should “keep his day job.” </span><br style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 14px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Even the right-leaning Nashville City Paper referred to his nomination as “stalled.”</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 14px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><br style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 14px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Senators Edward Kennedy and Dianne Feinstein, both members of the Judiciary Committee, reportedly put a hold on Puryear’s nomination, deeming him a controversial candidate rather than a consensus nominee. “I understand they have put Puryear in the ‘controversial’ category,” said Vanderbilt University law professor Brian Fitzpatrick. “It’s very rare for a district court nominee to become controversial.”</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 14px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><br style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 14px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Finally, on September 23, 2008, after no movement on Puryear’s nomination in the Judiciary Committee for seven months, Senator Lamar Alexander, Puryear’s chief standard bearer, raised the white flag and acknowledged it was “not going to happen.”</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 14px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><br style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 14px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Ironically, it was one of Puryear’s ardent supporters, Alabama attorney Ed Haden, who may have driven the final nail into Puryear’s judicial nomination coffin. In an August 14, 2008 Associated Press article, Haden was quoted as saying Puryear could still be confirmed based on quid pro quo deal-making. “At the end of the session, it’s, ‘Who wants a bridge in Vermont?’” he said, in a not-so-subtle reference to Vermont senator and Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy.</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 14px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><br style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 14px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">While that may in fact be how things are done in Washington – and Haden would know, as he previously served as nominations counsel for Senator Orrin Hatch and chief counsel for Senator Jeff Sessions – it isn’t prudent to say it publicly. Upon being informed of Haden’s cavalier comment, Senator Leahy’s chief counsel noted dryly that Haden “seems to have no idea how Senator Leahy approaches nominations.”</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 14px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><br style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 14px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In the end, the Puryear nomination concluded with a whimper, not a bang. After the Senate adjourned on January 2, 2009, his nomination was returned to the White House, closing the door on Puryear’s hopes for a federal judgeship. The vacancy on the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee will now be filled by President Obama; in a written statement, Puryear blamed the demise of his nomination on “election-year politics.”</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 14px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><br style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 14px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The Puryear opposition campaign declared victory in a January 22, 2009 press release. “While some may consider it ironic that a former CCA prisoner managed to derail the judicial nomination of CCA’s general counsel, the fact remains that Mr. Puryear was a questionable, partisan candidate who had conflicts and problematic issues, both past and present, that ensured his nomination would not survive scrutiny,” Friedmann stated. “The opposition campaign simply provided the necessary level of scrutiny.”</span></div><div>===</div>