Obama's SCOTUS Kingmaker

Meet Robert F. Bauer, Obama's top lawyer and a 30-year veteran of Democratic campaigns. Bauer replaced the blunt Gregory Craig as White House counsel in January, after Craig spent most of his year in the doghouse. As an administration official put it, "When you talk to Bauer, you know that he speaks for the president or that he will raise things with the president. When Greg said something, you didn't know whether or not he was speaking for himself." Now, Obama has raised Bauer's visibility by tasking him with coordinating the selection of Justice Stevens’ replacement on the Supreme Court, Politico reports. It's a tough job, considering that White House officials expect a nomination fight.