The New York Times reports on the continuing speculation over whether White House Counsel Greg Craig is on the way out.
As President Obama’s top lawyer, Mr. Craig has been at the center of thorny decisions on closing the prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and revising interrogation and detention policies, problems that have bedeviled the new administration and generated fierce battles inside and outside the White House. And for months now, he has endured speculation in print and around the White House about whether he is on the way out.
Mr. Craig said he had no plans to leave, and White House officials said the president still had faith in him. But colleagues and Democrats close to the White House said they expected him to move on around the end of the year, and they have been talking about possible replacements. Whether Mr. Craig leaves or not, the discussion of his fate has grown so persistent and the situation so awkward that one supporter calls it “the Greg Craig watch.”
A large number of senior law-related positions in the Administration that remain open. Having to search for another White House Counsel will hardly help.