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Ex-White House counsel returns

President Bush turns to lawyer Fred Fielding for help.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published February 23, 2007

WASHINGTON - In his first job at the White House, Fred Fielding, barely in his 30s, broke the news to President Nixon's top lawyer about the Watergate break-in.

In 1981, when President Reagan was shot and lying on an operating table, it was Fielding who helped settle a dispute about who was in charge of the nation. A few years later, Reagan's counsel stood at the president's bedside, making sure he was competent to reclaim his authority after cancer surgery.

Now, more than two decades later, President Bush has brought the 67-year-old lawyer back to handle legal fights the White House expects with the new Democratic Congress.

In an Associated Press interview, he is soft-spoken. But Fielding, who has defended huge corporate clients, is no pushover.

Still, he insists he has no interest in stonewalling Democrats, who plan to investigate the Iraq war, suspected government fraud and White House decision-making on environmental policy, secret surveillance and other matters. The White House could erect roadblocks to congressional subpoenas and requests for information.

"Then nobody gets anything done," said Fielding. "If they need information and we can provide them information consistent with not giving away the executive branch prerogatives, then we'll find a way."

In responding to congressional requests for documents, Fielding will be conferring at times with Vice President Dick Cheney and his chief of staff, David Addington, who have broadly interpreted the powers of the presidency. Cheney has argued that executive privilege, which lets the president seek advice and deliberate policy without having to disclose the information, has been eroded by Congress in response to the Vietnam War and Watergate.

Some things - like the office phone number - haven't changed since Fielding held the job before. He still has some of his old business cards. A photo of Reagan and him on Air Force One is back on the office wall. The two are smiling as Reagan holds up a bumper sticker that says: "My lawyer can beat your lawyer."

Fielding was born in Philadelphia and grew up on a farm in Bucks County, Pa. His father died when he was 11. He attended Gettysburg College and the University of Virginia School of Law on scholarships.

After law school, he worked with a Philadelphia law firm, and in 1970 became deputy to former White House Counsel John Dean.

[Last modified February 23, 2007, 01:13:09]