Shelby (R-Ala) hires former Clinton impeachment lawyer for leak probe

[Nambe]

WASHINGTON (AP)

A Washington attorney who represented President Clinton at his impeachment trial and has a long association with Democrats will defend Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., against ethics charges that he leaked classified information to the media. ..

Besides serving as a lead attorney in Clinton's impeachment proceedings, Craig represented the father of Cuban immigrant Elian Gonzalez in a highly publicized custody battle. His numerous high-profile criminal cases included representing President Reagan's attempted assassin, John Hinckley, and Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., when he was a witness in the rape trial of Kennedy's nephew, William Kennedy Smith.

A former Kennedy adviser on defense, foreign policy and national security, Craig also was director of policy planning for Clinton's secretary of state, Madeleine Albright.

Although Shelby was a Democrat earlier in his career, he has cut most of those ties, so the choice of Craig to represent him raised some eyebrows. But unlike most standing committees, where Republicans have the majority, the ethics panel is made up of three Democrats and three Republicans.

Shelby, up for re-election in November, doesn't appear to be in jeopardy of losing that race, regardless of how the ethics probe turns out.

Ride Don’t Drive * * It’s Global Cool

[mom cat]

1. OMG..Repuke needs a TRIAL LAWYER.....LOL

[acmavm]

2. Seems like a lot of they are 'lawyering up'.

Makes a joke out of them bitching about trial lawyers when they're all paying high buck fees to have one represent them. Who all has a lawyer now? bush*, Cheney, DeLay... anyone else?

[CBHagman]

3. He was a party-switcher after the '94 elections.

:eyes:

However, he's not one of the more odious ones, for what that's worth. It's harder to stomach some of these others...

[Carolina]

5. He's still a 'bama'

POS!

[Moderator]

4. Kick

Kick

[kskiska]

6. Craig is a good friend of Hillary from school

Funny how these guys are the first to lawyer up when the chips are down.

[yellowcanine]

7. Pubbies like to trash trial lawyers until they need a good one...

Heh.

[w4rma]

8. Shelby is toast. The Repugs wont trust him now and he's already stabbed

us in the back.