Ballad of Casino Jack, Refrain?

“The White House has said that Jack Abramoff had very little contact with the President’s staff and that it wanted all the relevant facts to be public. The 600 pages of documents it is withholding are directly relevant and should be produced.” Remember Casino Jack? Henry Waxman does, and has asked the White House to produce 600 pages of information previously withheld from the House investigation into Abramoff’s activities. (And this time, the White House might actualy play ball. Given an out by Waxman — that the information might be shown only to committee staff rather than going public — White House Counsel Fred Fielding pounced, “saying he was ‘pleased that such a concept is proposed in your letter’ and pledging to ‘seek to accommodate our respective interests in the documents we have withheld.’“)

Fielding Era.

As predicted Dubya picks a savvy, seasoned fighter — veteran GOP lawyer Fred Fielding — to replace Harriet Miers as White House counsel. “‘Fred will be a formidable person to deal with,’ said Democrat Richard Ben-Veniste, a Watergate prosecutor who served with Fielding on the Sept. 11 commission. ‘This change reflects the understanding by the president and his advisers in the administration that they will be in for a much more robust period of congressional oversight.’