If a GOP president-elect selected one of Sirhan Sirhan’s lawyers for an important role on his White House? I think we all know that there would have been a serious shit-storm over such a choice.

So why is President-elect Hopey McChangerson not facing significant criticism for his choice of Gregory Craig to be his White House Counsel? Indeed, why has that aspect of his career, among others, been ignored by the press.

Gregory B. Craig, a well-known Washington lawyer who quarterbacked President Bill Clinton’s impeachment defense, has been chosen White House counsel by President-elect Barack Obama, according to Democratic officials.

Interestingly enough, the story that follows doesn’t note some of his less-proud professional activities (and it is hard to get less proud than successfully defending an admitted perjurer from perjury charges):

• Elian Gonzalez’s father - Craig represented the father who demanded the return of his son after his estranged wife died trying to take Elian to freedom. Most people saw this as a thinly-veiled publicity stunt from Fidel Castro, attempting to embarrass the US. The dispute got resolved when Janet Reno ordered an armed assault on the house where Elian’s family in the US provided him a home.
• John Hinckley, Jr - Craig presented and won the insanity defense that allows Ronald Reagan’s would-be assassin to spend weekends with his family now.
• Kofi Annan - The former Secretary-General of the UN hired Craig to defend his interests in the Volcker Commission probe of the Oil-for-Food scandal, which put billions of dollars into Saddam Hussein’s pockets while providing cash for Annan’s son, his deputies, and some allege Annan himself.
• Pedro Gonzalez Pinzon - A Panamanian legislator wanted for murdering an American soldier in 1992. The Dallas Morning News demanded that Obama force Craig to drop the case during the campaign, but no report of whether he did is easily available.

So not only does Obama have a history of associating with terrorists and racial extremists, he is now giving positions to those who work to send children back to Communist tyranny, free presidential assassins, protect corrupt international bureaucrats who helped fund dictators and keep from justice the murderer of an American soldier. But then again, perhaps those earlier associations should have told us what sort of ethical standards we would see in Bamalot.