It appears that Judge Khouzam's credentials are excellent, and she's a minority and a woman. That may have been enough to satisfy the liberal Chiles. Remember that she was appointed in the days before the Senate began fillabustering judicial nominees.
These are the possibilities I see. I could be totally wrong, and something totally different could happen that we can't conceive. I don't claim to have a special pipeline to the Almighty. :o)
But at the same time, I understand where you're coming from. There are Freepers and others who have followed Terri's story for a much longer time period than I have, and have witnessed much more corruption than I have, in real time.
It's really difficult to hope against hope, and to fight evil, over a multi-year period. It's exhausting, and draining, especially when a life hangs in the balance. When the stakes are this high, the positive options seem to be pretty near to running out, and evil seems to be slamming every door shut, it's a natural thing to try and figure out if the odds are tilting to the positive. To answer the question, "Is there a basis in reality to hope?" To gain the necessary strength to forge onward.
I have seen miracles happen, and times when they didn't. I can't claim any knowledge how Terri's fight will turn out. All we can do is fight, pray, and trust God that He'll provide a ram in the bush; that He will, as the Rev. Martin Luther King once said, "make a way out of no way."
Lately, when I've turned to prayer about Terri, I have included all of you, my fellow Freepers, who have been "fighting the good fight," so long and so hard.
God bless you, and keep the faith. :o)