How plugged-in is incoming White House counsel Fred Fielding? His daughter has enjoyed a career in the vice president's office. Though we doubt she's the one who got him the job.

In 2002, UPI reported that Fielding's daughter Alexandra became staff assistant to Second Lady Lynne Cheney. I'm told Alexandra now works under the vice president himself, although my call to his office has so far failed to yield a confirmation.

The New York Times reported today that the onetime counsel to Richard Nixon "maintained close ties to Mr. Cheney, whom he has known for decades, and had occasionally been an informal adviser to him."

Washington Life magazine has on its site a picture (here, with caption) of Alexandra, taken at a 2004 bash for author Ronald Kessler's lily-gilding portrait of the Bush White House, "A Matter of Character." Not that it bears pointing out, but she's the one on the left, smiling next to OMB chief Clay Johnson III.

That's some serious company: Johnson, Kessler reported in a 2006 article, is "the only person to have spanked Barney," the presidential dog.