Harriet Miers

Breaking: Bush Picks Fred Fielding as New White House Counsel

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Fred Fielding Fred F Fielding White House Counsel Wiley Rein & Fielding Above the Law.jpgThis just in, from Time:

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. An official who has been briefed on the impending announcement, which could come as soon as Tuesday, called Fielding “the ultimate Washington lawyer-insider — he’s the man to see.”

Some interesting comments from some of you in support of Fred Fielding:

“Fred Fielding. Bush needs an adult to deal with the children who are now running the Hill.”

“[P]lenty of SCOTUS clerks are far too academic-minded to be successful litigators. What the President needs right now is a litigator, and I can’t think of anyone better than Tim Flanigan, Fred Fielding, or Dick Wiley. One of those three would be my choice…”

Fielding is not among the Elect; in fact, it appears from his Wiley Rein & Fielding bio that he never clerked. But he’s obviously a great pick for the job of White House counsel. He has a wealth of experience, both in litigation and in government, and he’s one of the most well-connected lawyers in town. He previously served as White House counsel, from 1981 to 1986, under President Ronald Reagan.
Congratulations to Mr. Fielding on his new post — and to President Bush for making such an excellent selection.
Exclusive: Bush Picks a Replacement for Harriet Miers [Time via Drudge Report]
Fred F. Fielding bio [Wiley Rein & Fielding]
Fred F. Fielding [Wikipedia]
Earlier: Harriet Miers: Farewell My Concubine Counsel
Breaking: Harriet Miers Has Resigned As White House Counsel!

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ATL Week in Review: January 1-5

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2007.jpgLast week was short, thanks to the New Year’s holiday; but it sure was busy. Here are some highlights from a very momentous week:
* No more jokes about Harriet Miers: the ill-fated ex-SCOTUS nominee has resigned as White House counsel. Speculation about her successor abounds.
* No more jokes about the Dewy Orifice: the ill-fated merger between Dewey Ballantine and Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe has been called off.
* Turns out that Chief Justice Rehnquist was a painkiller junkie. Once, while suffering withdrawal symptoms, he tried to bust out of a hospital in his PJs.
* Chief Judge David Levi, of the Eastern District of California, will be the new Dean of Duke Law School.
* All About Jan? Just as the aging Margo Channing’s reign over Broadway was threatened by the comely Eve Harrington, the aging Linda Greenhouse’s reign over One First Street is being threatened by the comely Jan Crawford Greenburg.
* Who knew? Law professors and legal bloggers sure know how to party! Photos of drunken legal academics available here and here.
* Cravath partner John Beerbower has enjoyed some amazing apartments over the years. Cravath partnership + Wealthy wife = $20 million, Park Avenue pad.
* Who’s your favorite First Circuit judge? Cast your vote here.
* If you’re a right-winger hoping that Justice Stevens will step down soon, don’t hold your breath.
* Today’s D.C. Circuit: Despite the occasional catfight, it’s not as bitchy as it used to be. Sigh.
* Oppressed law clerks, your Devil Wears Prada is on its way. Coming soon to a bookstore near you: Chambermaid, by former Third Circuit clerk Saira Rao.

Who Will Fill Harriet Miers’s Size Six Shoes?

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Harriet Miers Harriet E Miers Harriet Ellan Miers Harriet Elan Miers Above the Law.JPGPresident Bush famously described Harriet E. Miers, the outgoing White House counsel, as “a pit bull in size six shoes.” Woof woof!
But some White House insiders viewed Harriet Miers as insufficiently canine. Per the Washington Post:

Miers, a longtime Bush loyalist whose nomination to the Supreme Court was withdrawn in 2005 as a result of conservative opposition, led an office that will oversee legal clashes that could erupt if Democrats aggressively use their new subpoena power. Bush advisers inside and outside the White House concluded that she is not equipped for such a battle….

The White House did not announce a replacement but has settled on someone to take on the assignment, according to several advisers who did not disclose the name.

If you have thoughts about who this person might be, we’d love to hear from you.
Further discussion and speculation, after the jump.

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Non-Sequiturs: 01.04.07

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Rachel Brand Rachel Brand Rachel Brand Above the Law.jpg* Some interesting comments about Harriet Miers getting a Fifth Circuit nomination, as well as speculation about who might replace her as White House counsel. [ConfirmThem]
(We second the suggestion of Rachel Brand (at right). Brand previously worked in the White House counsel’s office, before her appointment to head the Office of Legal Policy at the Justice Department.)
* From an Instpaundit correspondent: “I’m no law prof, but isn’t the presumption of innocence most useful before a pile of facts come out indicating that the accused are, in fact, innocent?” [Instapundit]
* Speaking of which, check out Best Defense, which “seeks to place the presumption of innocence front and center.” [Bag and Baggage]
* Jeez, he’s even more of a tool than we thought. Can someone please talk some sense into him about 2008? [Althouse]
* Backlash to the backlash against (allegedly) excessive executive pay. [Point of Law via Dealbreaker]
* Amen. With the exception of news aggregators, blogs are by their nature idiosyncratic, rather than comprehensive. So don’t get your briefs in a wad when we fail to write about your pet topic. [Volokh Conspiracy; Althouse]

Harriet Miers: Farewell My Concubine Counsel

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Harriet Miers Harriet E Miers Harriet Ellan Miers Harriet Elan Miers Above the Law.JPGAs previously reported, Harriet Miers — she of the ill-fated Supreme Court nomination* — has submitted her resignation as White House Counsel. It will take effect at the end of this month, on January 31. The search for her replacement has begun.
From White House spokesman Tony Snow:

“Basically, she has been here six years. As somebody said earlier today, ‘She put 12 years of service into six years.’ Harriet is one of the most beloved people here at the White House.”

Indeed, the work ethic of the 61-year-old Miers lies beyond question. At night, her car is typically the last one left in the senior staff parking lot, between the Old Executive Office Building and the West Wing. Her dedication to President Bush is also unimpeachable.
(The New York Times, referring to Miers’s withdrawn SCOTUS nomination, states that “no one doubted her intellect, [but] some doubted her credentials to be a justice.” We disagree with the first proposition. In certain super-snobby quarters of the legal elite, her intellect was definitely questioned — even if few would do so publicly.)
We hear that Miers’s resignation, which she announced at this morning’s White House counsel staff meeting, came as a surprise to much of her staff. There’s also precious little information about her replacement.
* A well-established rule of English usage: With respect to Harriet Miers, the words “Supreme Court nomination” must always be preceded by “ill-fated.”
Additional commentary appears after the jump.

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Breaking: Harriet Miers Has Resigned As White House Counsel!

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drudge siren.gifFor those of you who enjoyed poking fun at Harriet Miers during her ill-fated Supreme Court nomination, you won’t have her to kick around anymore.
(Yes, we know. When it comes to mockery of Harriet Miers, we have somewhat unclean hands.)
We must step away from our computer now. As Howard Bashman might say, we are meeting a very cool and important law professor for lunch (but won’t name him or her). Hahaha.
We’ll resume our coverage of the Miers demise after we return.
Miers Resigns As White House Counsel [Associated Press]

Some Fifth Circuit Scuttlebutt

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fifth circuit 5th circuit 5th cir Above the Law Law Gossip.GIFThanks to everyone who responded to our request for gossip about possible Fifth Circuit judicial nominations. Your tips were very helpful to us, as was this piece in the Texas Lawyer.
(And thanks to Peter Harrell, a current law student and former political reporter for Congressional Quarterly, for this insightful comment. A good point. With respect to some judicial nominees, the Democrats will probably try “killing them softly,” with procedural mechanisms. But the Dems should be careful. If they do TOO much of this, they will look obstructionist. And Pelosi and pals are saying that they’re in D.C. to get things done.)
Anyway, re: the 5th Circuit, this is what we’re hearing:
1. There are two Texas seats on the Fifth Circuit to fill: those of Judge Patrick Higginbotham and Judge Harold DeMoss. (For the vacant Mississippi seat, Michael Wallace is the White House’s pick; but he doesn’t seem to be going anywhere right now.)
2. A package deal of two nominees is likely. One would be a so-called “diversity pick,” i.e., a minority or a woman, and one would be a “regular” pick.
(Some Senate Republicans are not thrilled about the idea of a diversity pick. But the Democrats taking over the Senate next year, diversity picks will probably only increase.)
3. For the “diversity” seat, the leading candidates are two Texas state court judges: Justice George C. Hanks, Jr., an African-American appeals court judge; and Judge Jennifer W. Elrod, a well-regarded trial court judge.
(Yes, Judge Elrod is quite attractive — in a perky, “Jennifer Aniston” sort of way. But please do not confuse her with Jennifer Elrod, “Famous Centerfold and Celebrity.” Judge Elrod uses that middle initial for a reason.)
4. For the “regular” seat, the process right now is focused upon two individuals: Judge Sidney A. Fitzwater (N.D. Tex.), a Reagan appointee to the federal trial bench, and Gregory S. Coleman, a partner in the Austin office of Weil, Gotshal & Manges.
5. A grab bag of other possibilities, but not as likely as the four just mentioned: Judge David Godbey (N.D. Tex.); Judge Jane Boyle (N.D. Tex.); Judge Lee H. Rosenthal (S.D. Tex., and a woman); Chief Justice Wallace Jefferson, of the Texas Supreme Court; Justice Jane Bland, of the Texas First Court of Appeals; Texas Solicitor General R. Ted Cruz; and Professor Ernest A. Young, of the University of Texas School of Law (Austin).
These are the basics. If you’re a real judicial junkie, check out our additional observations, after the jump.

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Love Conquers All: Justice Nathan Hecht Cleared on Ethics Charges

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nathan hecht harriet miers.jpegWhen White House Counsel Harriet Miers was nominated to the United States Supreme Court, her friend and ex-boyfriend, Texas Supreme Court Justice Nathan Hecht, rushed to her side. In numerous interviews with the news media, he praised his former paramour to the heavens.
Justice Hecht’s reward for such loyalty? Being haled before the Texas State Commission on Judicial Conduct, which reprimanded him for violating the Texas Code of Judicial Conduct. The Commission concluded that he violated prohibitions on a judge “advanc[ing] the private interests of the judge or others” and “authoriz[ing] the public use of his or her name endorsing another candidate for any public office.”
Thankfully, the reprimand has been dismissed. A special three-judge panel, convened by the Texas Supreme Court, has found Hecht not guilty of the charges. The panel’s lengthy opinion, which we’ve only skimmed, turns on how to construe a number of terms in the Texas Code that haven’t been adequately developed in the case law. The full decision is available here (PDF).
Our reaction? We’re pleased to see that chivalry is not dead in the Lone Star State.
No Reprimand in Judge’s Support of Miers [Associated Press]
Panel Clears Texas Supreme Court Justice [Austin American-Statesman via How Appealing]
Justice Nathan L. Hecht [Texas Judiciary Online]

Non-Sequiturs: 09.23.06

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Some random reading recommendations, which don’t have much to do with law. But that’s what weekends are for, right?
* Suffering from Entourage withdrawal? Read about a real-life agent dumping (by Jim Carrey). [Defamer]
* Suffering from Project Runway withdrawal, since there was no new episode this week? Get your hands on the New Yorker’s fantastic fashion issue. The profile of Diane von Furstenberg — by Larissa MacFarquhar, who once profiled Judge Richard Posner — is especially worthwhile. So is Andrea Lee’s article about high-end handbags (“The Bag Lady”). [New Yorker (table of contents; most articles not online)]
* Suffering from Harriet Miers withdrawal? Head over to the blog of Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley, Archbishop of Boston. Then run a search (ctrl-F) for “LOL.” [Cardinal Seán’s Blog via New York Times]

The Eyes of the Law: Harriet Miers Gets a Wardrobe Upgrade

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harriet miers.jpgHarriet Ellan Miers — remember her? President Bush’s White House Counsel, who was the subject of an ill-fated, and quickly withdrawn, Supreme Court nomination?
When Harriet Miers was thrust into the public spotlight as a SCOTUS nominee, her personal style was placed under scrutiny. People made fun of her hair and her make-up. And her 80′s-style ensembles were criticized by many.
Perhaps Harriet Miers took these fashion criticisms to heart. Here’s our latest “Eyes of the Law” celebrity sighting:

On Saturday afternoon, 9/9, I saw Harriet Miers in the “Narrative” Department at Nordstrom’s Pentagon City. She was looking at suits in black and “Reagan red.” I recognized her and nodded at her, and so she smiled pleasantly (in her Stepfordian way). She also rightly determined that red is not her color, and moved on.

I spent the rest of the afternoon lamenting the now obvious loss of my former rock-and-roll lifestyle and feeling tortured that I was shopping in the same department as Harriet Miers. Ew.

Cheer up, dear reader; you should actually congratulate yourself on being found in the shopping company of Harriet Miers. Although the blogospheric masses dismissed Harriet Miers, more sophisticated critics viewed her as a “fashion icon” — with really nice legs!

The White House Counsel’s Office: Here Comes the Cavalry

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In a web-exclusive article published yesterday — and picked up by Drudge, so tout le monde read it — Time magazine proffered this delicious tidbit:

[President Bush] is curtailing his traditional August working vacation at the ranch so that he can barnstorm before the midterm elections. Their outlook thus far seems so ominous for the G.O.P. that one presidential adviser wants Bush to beef up his counsel’s office for the tangle of investigations that a Democrat-controlled House might pursue.

This report is consistent with what we’ve heard about the staff of White House Counsel Harriet Miers. (Yes, that Harriet Miers — she of the unfortunate hairstyles and aborted Supreme Court bid.)
Here are some of the forthcoming additions to the White House Counsel staff:

* The strappingly handsome Brent J. McIntosh, currently a deputy assistant attorney general at the DOJ’s Office of Legal Policy, is joining the ranks of Miers’s minions. McIntosh is replacing his Yale Law School classmate and good friend, conservative legal superstar Brett Gerry. (Gerry — a former law clerk to Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, as well as a descendant of American founding father Elbridge Gerry — is taking a high-ranking post at the Justice Department’s new National Security Division.)
* Wachtell Lipton associate Kenneth Lee is leaving that renowned Manhattan sweatshop — with its killer hours and eye-popping paychecks — to join the White House Counsel’s office. Lawyers in the White House Counsel’s office work long hours. But this move might be a lifestyle improvement for the beleaguered Lee, a veteran of some of Wachtell’s grimmest cases (e.g., the Larry Silverstein/World Trade Center litigation).

A position at the White House Counsel’s office is one of the most prestigious and exciting gigs that a lawyer can obtain. So it’s not surprising that Brent McIntosh and Ken Lee are willing to leave their current jobs — which are high-profile, in McIntosh’s case, and lucrative, in Lee’s case — for a Pennsylvania Avenue posting.
If you have any more info about comings and goings at the White House Counsel’s office, please drop us a line.
Into the Fray [Time]
Time: Presidential adviser wants Bush to ‘beef up’ White House Counsel’s office fearing possible Dem-controlled House probes [Raw Story]