If I suddenly told you I was hiring Johnny Cochran to be my attorney, you’d think – well, first of all, you’d think it was peculiar, since Johnny Cochran is dead. Maybe I’m looking to save some money. But, assuming I mean the metaphorical Johnny Cochran, you’d be pretty sure I’m in some kind of really serious trouble.

Or if your wife mentioned she had hired a lawyer, and you found out the attorney specializes in . . . divorce. You’d probably start checking some apartment listings.

Which brings us to the strange case of President Obama’s decision to hire Neil Eggleston to be his new White House Counsel.

Eggleston is the kind of guy you go to when someone tells you, “time to lawyer up.” He’s a veteran at cleaning up ethics messes for politicians, most notably Bill Clinton, whom he aided during the Whitewater probes and the Monica Lewinsky affair, double entendre intended.

But that’s not nearly all. He represented Rahm Emanuel during the scandal surrounding former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, as well as Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) and George W. Bush political director Sara Taylor when scandals touched them, Clinton Cabinet members Federico Pena and Alexis Herman during corruption probes, and various business people involved in “complex criminal investigations” according to the New York Times.

Which begs and pleads the question, is Obama looking for more protection for the White House from the various GOP congressional probes, or is he aware of the possibility that something much, much worse could break?