California Conservative

That’s the word according to this Time article. Here’s what Time is reporting:

“He’s the guy who helps you defend your position, stick to your principles, but tries to work out a reasonable compromise,” the official said. “He’s highly partisan, but he’s highly regarded by everyone.” The idea came from Chief of Staff Josh Bolten, and Administration officials said they regarded it as a savvy choice. The selection of Fielding, a member of the 9/11 commission from 2002 to 2004, comes as the White House is gearing up for a multitude of investigations — and likely subpoenas — from Democrats, who took control of both chambers of Congress last week with a vow to pursue aggressive oversight and deny the White House blank checks for Iraq or anything else.

Fielding was persuaded to leave his lucrative position as a senior partner in the Washington law firm of Wiley, Rein & Fielding with “an appeal to patriotism” and an assurance that he would not just be the President’s lawyer but would be deeply involved in Congressional strategy and negotiations, the official said. 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.

“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.”

I’m not that familiar with Mr. Fielding but if he was Reagan’s White House Counsel, then I’ve got to think that this is a great choice. If there’s one thing that can be said about Reagan, it’s that he had topnotch conservative legal minds working in his Counsel’s office.

Some of the people in Reagan’s White House Counsel’s office include Chief Justice John Roberts, conservative radio talk show host Hugh Hewitt & former 4th Circuit Court Judge J. Michael Luttig.

In other words, it was a who’s who of conservative legal minds.

Technorati Tags: Fred Fielding, Chief Justice Roberts, Hugh Hewitt, Michael Luttig, Reagan, Harriet Miers, White House Counsel

Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog

This entry was posted on Monday, January 8th, 2007 at 2:09 pm and is filed under Author: Gary Gross, Investigations, W, Washington, DC. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.