White House Counsel: The Toughest Job in Washington?

[WSJ Law Blog]

The first objective of being a White House counsel is to preserve the good reputation you had before you went into the job . . . It’s a career-ender.

– Wiley Rein’s Jan Baran, as quoted in this WaPo profile, out Friday.

The above quote made us sit up and take stock of the last handful of folks who’ve had the privilege (or burden) of holding the position of White House counsel in recent years: Alberto Gonzales, Harriet Miers, Greg Craig. None of the above left their respective administrations with their reputations in precisely the same place it was before they signed on.

And that brings us — and the Washington Post — to the current White House counsel Bob Bauer.

According to the piece, the former Perkins Coie lawyer is holding his own in the perilous position, which he assumed right after the first of the year. He played a pivotal role in “making peace” between rivaling factions of Democrats as the health-care negotiations neared the wire and has, so far, impressed people with his political savvy.

That said, writes the Post, “health care might be among his easier assignments.” For Bauer, the rubber will meet the road on national security. Writes the Post:

His biggest burden: where the government should try Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the self-declared mastermind of the 9/11 attacks. Bauer started the job the month after Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. announced a civilian trial in New York — a brazen decision that has since been dropped. Now, Bauer is trying to think bigger and consider all Guantanamo detainees and suspected terrorists captured abroad in one proposal, rather than case by case. That “Grand Bargain” may include new legislation, which the White House had previously said it would not seek.

But for better or worse, Bauer can’t spend all his time mulling national security. The questions that cross his desk come fast and furious:

Is this or that White House proposal constitutional? Who should be the next Supreme Court nominee? Is this or that White House employee violating strict ethics policies? . . . His colleagues said his particular skills are recommending not just what is legal but also realistic and, in the words of one, “giving the president options.”

That said, one prominent Democratic lawyer told the Post that Bauer might simply be facing a mountain of issues that’s impossible to climb.

“You can’t see the White House counsel’s office as just a law firm,” the lawyer said. “It is a media, legal and political position, all three. Experience has shown Bauer is a brilliant lawyer, but he knows nothing about the other two legs of that stool, and in the White House counsel’s office, that is a disaster.”