White House Picks Counsel: Fred Fielding

Time’s Mike Allen has the scoop:

President Bush plans to name the widely respected Republican lawyer Fred F. Fielding as White House counsel this week, party sources tell TIME….

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 meant 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.”

Well, given that he was John Dean’s deputy during Watergate, he’s no stranger to scandal.