Craig out as WH counsel

posted at 10:12 am on November 13, 2009 by Ed Morrissey
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As it became more apparent that the White House would not just miss its target of closing Gitmo by January but had no realistic plan to close it at all, the man at the head of that effort became expendable.  Greg Craig, the White House counsel who made it his mission to shutter the terrorist detention facility at Guantanamo Bay but failed to reckon with Congress or several inconvenient facts, will leave the White House sooner than expected as a result.  The Obama administration will hope that the failure of their Gitmo effort will be carried by Craig on the way out of the door:

White House Counsel Gregory B. Craig is expected to announce his departure as early as Friday, people familiar with the situation said, ending an embattled tenure in which he struggled to lead the closure of the U.S. military detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Struggled?  Yes, that’s one way of putting it.  After Craig damaged US-British relations by sticking four Gitmo detainees on a plane to Bermuda, and after he dumped less than a dozen more on the island nation of Palau, the pickings for release became mighty slim.  Even with the US sending five 9/11 plotters to New York City to face a criminal trial, the Washington Post estimates that 75 prisoners remain that simply cannot be released, sent elsewhere, or tried normally — a situation Obama’s critics predicted all along.

Craig didn’t create the policy or write the executive order closing Gitmo, of course, but he makes a handy scapegoat.  The Post’s sources at the White House seem eager to laden Craig down with as much blame as he can carry:

But just a few months in office left Craig disenchanted with the political process and some senior White House officials frustrated with the operations of the counsel’s office. Some critics pointed to mistakes along the way, including the administration’s failure to anticipate congressional opposition to closing the detention facility.

White House officials have conceded they will not make the January closure deadline that Craig helped Obama settle on and are at a loss as to where to house a number of hard cases who cannot be transferred to foreign countries or tried in U.S. or military courts.

And there were other problems in his path. The vetting of nominees, a job typically overseen by the counsel’s office, did not go well at first. Craig never quite penetrated the president’s inner circle of advisers, despite his close personal relationship with Obama — and his high-profile role in the Guantanamo struggle made him an easy target, according to defenders of his who said he should not have been held responsible for the politics of such a thorny issue.

For “the most open and transparent administration ever,” this White House seems pretty adept at character assassination by leak.  That’s nothing new, of course; Presidents have done that for decades.  These are cheap shots at an outgoing colleague, but entirely necessary if they hope to keep the stench of the Gitmo flop off of Barack Obama.  This allows Obama to declare a new effort to close Gitmo with a new team, or simply stop talking about it and hope everyone forgets.

For those inclined to see Anita Dunn’s departure as some sort of victory, Craig’s replacement will bring those fantasies down to earth.  Obama will appoint his personal lawyer, Bob Bauer, to replace Craig.  Bauer is married to Anita Dunn, and Michelle reminds us of who Bauer is:

*It was Bauer who lobbied the Justice Department unsuccessfully last fall to pursue a criminal probe of American Issues Project (AIP), an independent group that sought to run an ad spotlighting Obama’s ties to Weather Underground terrorist Bill Ayers.

*It was Bauer who attempted to sic the DOJ on GOP donor Harold Simmons and sought his prosecution for funding the ad.

*It was Bauer who tried to bully television stations across the country to compel them to pull the spot. All on Barack Obama’s behalf.

In other words, Bauer is exactly the kind of man a President would want — if he wants to continue his efforts to stifle dissent and become the new Nixon.

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