Posted by
Always To The Right on Monday, November 17, 2008 11:05:10 AM
Barack Obama has selected Gregory Craig
as White House counsel, a move that will recall some controversial
legal cases over the last few years. Craig has plenty of experience in
politics as well as the courtroom, having served as Bill Clinton’s
legal counsel during the impeachment hearings. Craig flipped from
Hillary Clinton to Barack Obama early in the primaries, and Obama has
repaid his support — but Craig’s caseload will raise a few eyebrows
Besides defending Clinton through the impeachment process, an effort
that Craig lost, who else had the benefit of Craig’s counsel?
- Elian Gonzalez’s father - Craig represented the father who demanded
the return of his son after his estranged wife died trying to take
Elian to freedom. Most people saw this as a thinly-veiled publicity
stunt from Fidel Castro, attempting to embarrass the US. The dispute
got resolved when Janet Reno ordered an armed assault on the house
where Elian’s family in the US provided him a home.
- John Hinckley, Jr - Craig presented and won the insanity defense
that allows Ronald Reagan’s would-be assassin to spend weekends with
his family now.
- Kofi Annan - The former Secretary-General of the UN hired Craig to
defend his interests in the Volcker Commission probe of the
Oil-for-Food scandal, which put billions of dollars into Saddam
Hussein’s pockets while providing cash for Annan’s son, his deputies,
and some allege Annan himself.
- Pedro Gonzalez Pinzon - A Panamanian legislator wanted for murdering an American soldier in 1992. The Dallas Morning News demanded that Obama force Craig to drop the case during the campaign, but no report of whether he did is easily available.
I doubt that any President has selected the defender of a
presidential assassin as White House Counsel before now. Does anyone
want to guess how long that takes to become a Trivial Pursuit question?
Given Craig’s dubious client list, especially Gonzalez Pinzon as an
apparent active client, this selection is a disgrace. The last person
we need in the White House is an attorney who represented assassins,
Castro and his goons, corrupt UN executives, and a suspected killer of
an American soldier. Those are the people the White House should focus
on stopping, not embracing.
Update: I’m not saying that people should not have
defense counsel when charged with a crime; that’s an absurd response to
this post. What I’m saying is that Craig is an absurd choice for White
House counsel on the basis of the kinds of cases he himself pursued.
No one forced him to take Hinckley, Gonzalez Pinzon, Annan, or
Gonzalez/Castro as clients. Like most attorneys looking to boost their
practice, Craig undoubtedly competed hard for their business.
Was Craig the only attorney available for this gig? No. Could Barack Obama find someone qualified who wasn’t currently
representing a man suspected of murdering an American soldier or who
represented a presidential assassin? If not, then Obama’s more
incompetent than anyone figured.