Street Fights

Harriet Miers may have been an ideal candidate for the Supreme Court but Bush must feel she's no up to any real lawyer work when it come to the upcoming street fights with the Democratic controlled congress. Mike Allen of Time tells us he has chosen Fred F. Fielding to replace Ms Miers. Now I almost quit reading Mr Allen's piece after the first sentence.

In a signal that he could be open to working more closely with congressional Democrats rather than stonewalling, President Bush plans to name the widely respected Republican lawyer Fred F. Fielding as White House counsel this week, party sources tell TIME. Fielding, who held the same position under President Ronald Reagan, will succeed the President's friend Harriet Miers, who last week announced her resignation, effective Jan. 31.

Now all you have to do is look at Mr Fielding's resume to understand that is doesn't "signal that he could be open to working more closely with congressional Democrats rather than stonewalling".

Fielding was Counsel to President Reagan from 1981 to 1986, deputy White House counsel from 1972 to 1974 and associate White House counsel from 1970 to 1972. He was Clearance Counsel for the Bush-Cheney Presidential Transition in 2000 and 2001, and has degrees from Gettysburg College and University of Virginia School of Law.

That's right, Mr Fielding cut his professional teeth as part of the criminally combative Nixon administration. He was Reagan's WH council during Iran Contra. Now I don't know if he is a member of the Federalist Society but I would guess he is a strong supporter of the imperial presidency. Now this sounds a lot like "stonewalling" to me.

"The key for the Administration is going to be drawing the lines on these boundaries of executive privilege and access to documents and congressional oversight — drawing the lines around the really important issues and trying to be a little more flexible on the others," said a former colleague of Fielding. "They're not going to fold, because Fielding is a very serious, hard-nosed person, and he's a tough negotiator. But they're also going not to take a totally stonewall position. That doesn't mean they're going to cave in. What it means is they're going to negotiate and focus on the things that they're truly protecting and that are truly important."

Let the battles begin, it's going to be an interesting two years.