remember? Lawyer for Commie Elian Gonzalez's dad. Wonder who paid that bill, Fidel?
| Perhaps a foundation that launders money for George Soros ... |
Gregory B. Craig, a well-known Washington lawyer who quarterbacked President Bill Clinton's impeachment defense, has been chosen White House counsel by President-elect Barack Obama, according to Democratic officials.
Craig is intimately familiar with the president-elect's record because he played the role of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) in debate preparations.
| That doesn't mean squat since not even Bambi knows what his record is. Though it was likely a quick brief ... |
The officials said Obama has settled on Craig but were not sure when the appointment would be announced.
The choice gives the president-elect both experience and loyalty. During the primaries, Craig was an early Clinton alumni defector to Obama. Columnist Robert D. Novak reported back in the winter of 2007 that Craig had told him he "was impressed with Obama when he first met him at the home of investment banker Vernon Jordan, an intimate friend and supporter of the Clintons."
Craig was an Obama foreign policy adviser during the campaign. At the start of the Clinton administration, he had been the State Department's Director of Policy Planning, the head of State's in-house think tank. He also was senior adviser on defense, foreign policy and national security to Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.).
The White House counsel, among the most powerful members of the West Wing inner circle, serves as the president's lawyer, giving him legal advice and handling pardons and conflict-of-interest issues.
Craig, 63, is a partner at Williams & Connolly and a protégé of the late Edward Bennett Williams, the legendary Washington power lawyer. His selection adds to the surprisingly large number of Clinton White House veterans who are at the top of the Obama roster.
| What's so surprising? Bambi has to turn to Democrats who at least know the ropes. It's not like the progressive mopes on the Left know anything about goverance, since they've always fought against it ... |
Craig, who had been friends with Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham at Yale Law School, was recruited for the impeachment job by John Podesta, then deputy White House chief of staff and now a leader of Obama's transition.
A Washington Post profile in 1998 by Lloyd Grove and John F. Harris reported: "Craig brought along his best bedside manner when Clinton summoned him to the White House residence on the night of Sept. 10 -- the day after independent counsel Kenneth Starr's lurid report to Congress was published on the World Wide Web. On a balcony overlooking the South Lawn, Clinton and Craig sat talking for two hours."
Among Craig's other high-profile cases: successfully representing Elian Gonzalez' father, a Cuban, in his efforts to regain custody of his son; and representing U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan in connection during the Volcker Commission's investigation of the Oil-for-Food Program at the United Nations.
| He's got all the correct seedy recommendations then ... |
|