Prometheus 6

Obama Chooses an Inner-Circle Man
By JOHN M. BRODER

WASHINGTON — In being named White House counsel less than a year into President Obama’s tenure, Robert F. Bauer is reversing a longstanding trend.

Many presidents initially name a close friend and ally to the post, and then turn to a well-known Washington legal fixture when they run into legal or political trouble. In this case, Mr. Bauer, a trusted back-room counselor who was one of the first people Mr. Obama hired when he came to Washington five years ago, is taking the place of Gregory B. Craig, a legal powerhouse who was a relative latecomer to Mr. Obama’s inner circle.

Ever since Mr. Obama arrived as a freshman senator from Illinois in early 2005, Mr. Bauer has been his personal lawyer and informal political adviser. Mr. Bauer, now 57, was the chief legal adviser to the Obama presidential campaign and one of the candidate’s most forceful advocates, once interrupting a conference call with reporters by the rival campaign of Hillary Rodham Clinton to argue with Mrs. Clinton’s chief spokesman over a campaign attack.

Among other matters, he defended Mr. Obama against a lawsuit claiming the candidate was born outside the United States and thus ineligible to be president. The suit was dismissed as frivolous.

Mr. Bauer’s wife, Anita Dunn, was also a senior campaign aide and has served until now as the White House communications director. She is stepping down this month.

White House aides said the main functions of the counsel’s office would not change with the switch in leadership. The office is responsible for vetting candidates for administrative jobs and judicial posts, for handling ethics matters and for reviewing lawsuits involving the executive branch. It also handles many delicate foreign policy and intelligence issues.

The White House counsel has also historically served as in-house consigliere, providing legal and ethics advice to the president and the senior White House staff on a wide variety of questions.