TRANSITION TRACKER: Greg Craig as White House Counsel — What Kind of New Broom Is This?

Is this change we can believe in—or not? Just two weeks ago, Barack Obama was the fellow who was going to change the way Washington works. But then he got elected. And then he picked Rahm Emanuel, a toughie pol from the Clinton White House. We talked about him here in the past .

And Obama has reportedly offered the job of Secretary of State to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. Despite her oft-professed devotion to New York State, she is eager to take the job. Unfortunately for her, according to the papers this morning, the hangup is her husband, Bill Clinton. Gee, does that sound familiar?

And now comes the news that Greg Craig has been hired as White House counsel.

Now who is he, exactly? According to The Politico, he is a longtime aide to Teddy Kennedy. And here’s some more:

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 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.”

OK, so his biggest claim to fame is that he helped our ethically challenged former president beat the impeachment rap. Is that the hallmark of a new broom in D.C.?

If I ever got the chance to interview Craig, I’d have a lot of questions for him.

But wait! There’s more:

Among Craig’s other high-profile cases: successfully representing Elián González’ s 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.

So let’s get this straight: Craig’s other clients have included the father of Elian Gonzalez—the subject of a celebrated international custody case back in 2000. Which is to say, Craig’s real client back then was the Cuban government of Fidel Castro. And then Craig helped defend Kofi Annan on the UN’s scandalous “oil for food” program.

Wow. If I ever got the chance to interview Craig, I’d have a lot of questions for him. And so might U.S. Senators, in both parties, if the post of White House counsel were a Senate confirmation job. But it’s not, so Craig will be free to walk into the White House, and operate behind closed doors.

Bringing real change to Washington, of course.

Read more at http://foxforum.blogs.foxnews.com/2008/11/17/jpinkerton_1117/