Bush Taps Harriet Miers as White House Counsel

WASHINGTON – President Bush has decided to name Harriet Miers (search), a longtime Texas associate, as White House counsel, a senior administration official said Wednesday.

Miers would succeed Alberto Gonzales (search), nominated by Bush to be attorney general.

Formerly Bush's personal lawyer in Texas, Miers came with the president to the White House as his staff secretary, the person in charge of all the paperwork that crosses the president's desk. Miers was promoted to deputy chief of staff in June 2003.

From 1995 to 2000, she was chairwoman of the Texas Lottery Commission (search). In 1992, she became the first woman president of the Texas State Bar. She has been president of the Dallas Bar Association (search) as well, becoming in 1985 the first woman also in that post.

Miers also has served as a member-at-large on the Dallas City Council and earned both her undergraduate and law degrees from Southern Methodist University (search) in Dallas.

Her appointment, which does not require Senate confirmation, underscores a pattern of appointments of Bush loyalists to key positions for his second term.

Earlier Wednesday, Bush named Margaret Spellings (search), with whom he has a decade-long history from Texas, to be secretary of education.

Gonzales, too, is a fellow Texan and Bush confidant. And Condoleezza Rice (search), his national security adviser and foreign policy mentor, has been chosen to replace Secretary of State Colin Powell (search).