Oops: Obama's Chief Counsel Has Tax Issues

Can't say the name Derry Noyes ever crossed my radar before. Until tonight. Turns out Ms. Noyes just so happens to be married to Barack Obama's chief counsel, the odious Greg Craig.

White House general counsel Gregory Craig has seized control of Obama's vetting process after a series of nominees with unpaid taxes. But his wife's business may also have avoided taxes. Who vets the vetter?

Derry Noyes, Craig's wife, runs Noyes Graphics, a design business, out of the couple's home in northwest Washington. Between Craig's work and hers, they've been on Washington's A-list for a decade.

PBS's American Stamps aired a profile of her two days ago. She designs specialty postage for the U.S. Postal Service, including a number of notable stamps. One recent series celebrating the work of famous architect Charles Eames was featured in Metropolis. Noyes herself is the daughter of architect Eliot Noyes, a friend of Eames.

Operating a business out of one's home in D.C. requires a home occupation permit and registration with the city's division of corporations. Additionally, the government has instituted a new requirement for business license permits.

A spokesman at the Washington D.C. Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs told Gawker that no one has ever sought any kind of permit or registration for a business under the name of Noyes Graphics or at the Craigs' home address. By not registering Craig may have avoided local business taxes.

But wait. They're the beautiful people. Never mind.

Via.

Obama 'Report' by Obama Lawyer Clears Obama Chief of Staff

We can all go back to sleep now. Rahm Emanuel is in the clear. Expect the full report to be released somewhere around 11:55 pm on Christmas Eve, while everyone is snug in the beds with happy dreams of hope and change dancing in their heads.

George Stephanopoulos broke some news today when he reported that his former fellow Clinton White House colleague Rahm Emanuel was cleared by an investigation by Greg Craig, the former Clinton White House lawyer, into contacts the Obama transition team had with Gov. Rod Blagojevich's office (so far as we know Blago had no role in the Clinton Administration even though the former president and Blago both have a thing for Elvis, thank you very much.)

As Stephanopoulos reports in his blog (he also said this on "This Week" this morning:

Sources tell me that the Obama team's review of contacts with Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich will show that Rahm Emanuel had only one phone conversation with Blagojevich.

The contact, described as a "pro-forma" courtesy call, came as Emanuel was named Chief of Staff for Obama. Most of the discussion concerned Emanuel's Congressional seat (which had previously been held by Blagojevich), with only a "passing reference" to the Senate vacancy, according to these sources. No deal for the Senate vacancy was discussed.

Speculation in Washington and Chicago has been swirling for a week now over what the Obama team's report would find. Until now, the contents of that report have been kept sealed, at the request of the U.S. Attorney's office. Last Wednesday, Obama said he found it "a little bit frustrating" that the report had not yet been released.

In the meantime, let's all go back to pretending Obama has nothing to do with the corrupt Chicago machine that got him where he is today.

Savor the Change! Obama Brings on Another Clintonista

I'm actually beginning to think had Hillary won there would be fewer Clinton retreads coming on-board.

Where the change? The bold innovative thinking? Are former Clinton hacks the best you can do, Barry? Geez, at this rate I almost expect Lani Guinier to be nominated for something. It's almost as if they had some incriminating photos of the guy.

No, instead of this mythical change, we get a guy who sent Elian Gonzalez back to hell.

Craig, 63, is a partner at Williams & Connolly and a protégé of the late Edward Bennett Williams, the legendary Washington power lawyer. His selection adds to the surprisingly large number of Clinton White House veterans who are at the top of the Obama roster.

Craig, who had been friends with Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham at Yale Law School, was recruited for the impeachment job by John Podesta, then deputy White House chief of staff and now a leader of Obama’s transition.

A Washington Post profile in 1998 by Lloyd Grove and John F. Harris reported: “Craig brought along his best bedside manner when Clinton summoned him to the White House residence on the night of Sept. 10 — the day after independent counsel Kenneth Starr's lurid report to Congress was published on the World Wide Web. On a balcony overlooking the South Lawn, Clinton and Craig sat talking for two hours.”

Among Craig’s other high-profile cases: successfully representing Elian Gonzalez' father, a Cuban, in his efforts to regain custody of his son; and representing U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan in connection during the Volcker Commission's investigation of the Oil-for-Food Program at the United Nations.

This Is Change?

Quiz time: What do Madeleine Albright, Warren Christopher, William Perry, Jamie Gorelick, Tony Lake, Susan Rice, Greg Craig, Eric Holder, Richard Danzig and Jim Steinberg all have in common?

They're all former Clinton Administration officials in some capacity, many of them undistinguished.

So going back to the 90s represents change?

Today he'll be working with a senior working group, which includes most of the above. Gorelick, of course, was responsible for the wall that hampered the pursuit of terrorists during her time as No. 2 to the bumbling Janet Reno.

Now she's being considered for the top post herself.

Wonderful. Gives you such a safe feeling, no?

So it's fair game for Obama to be labeled with the September 10 mindset.