The President has found his replacement for Harriet Miers. It’s Fred Fielding. Fred Fielding is an interesting guy. He was deputy counsel to John Dean in the Nixon White House. Before Mark Felt revealed himself as Deep Throat, Fielding was one of the prime suspects. In fact, an University of Illinois classroom study identified Fielding as Deep Throat with a high degree of confidence.
“Everything that we have, we show there’s a document,” [Professor Bill] Gaines said. Unlike many previous speculations on the source’s identity, “it’s not interpretation, it’s not guesswork,” he said.
Gaines’ class turned out to be wrong. Fielding wasn’t Deep Throat; although it is possible that he was a source for Woodstein. When Reagan came into office Fielding landed the top job as counsel to the President. He served in that position until 1986, the year in which Iran-Contra broke into the news.
Fielding was part of the Bush-Cheney transition team. He was then tapped to serve on the whitewash of a 9/11 investigation. And now he will serve George W. Bush as he tries to fend off Congressional oversight and accountability. I can’t really think of anyone more experienced in handling scandal. Fielding seems perfect for the job (although, if he really did rat on Nixon, then maybe not).
But I have a bigger, broader question. How could it be that Harriet Miers was considered good enough to serve on the Supreme Court but not good enough to defend the President?
