Good decisions and nice sticking to their guns. "urine"-poor mealy mouthed communications. They could have made it much easier on themselves and the controllers by saying "min fuel, we need an immediate visual to 31R." Followed by the emergency declaration if the controller didn't play ball. Stating you need 31R doesn't mean you have to have it immediately.. they were taking him out for vectors into the 31R sequence because it was a secret that he was low on gas.
From my lazy-boy on Friday morning....