BY ANDRES VIGLUCCI

 After months of doing without an attorney, Elian Gonzalez's father has hired one
 of President Clinton's former impeachment lawyers, Washington insider Gregory
 B. Craig, to represent him in the battle to regain custody of his son.

 Juan Miguel Gonzalez's decision to retain Craig -- which according to the lawyer
 occurred during a meeting between the two in Cuba -- adds another tantalizing
 layer to the already tangled web of legal and political strategy surrounding the
 case.

 What Craig's role will be in the case, and how he came to be involved in it, is
 unclear. He released only a brief statement announcing his hiring and was not
 available for an interview. Craig did not intervene in Thursday's critical federal court
 hearing on efforts by Elian's Miami relatives to keep the boy here.

 One Clinton administration official said the government had nothing to do with
 Craig's hiring.

 Gonzalez has for months insisted that his participation in any U.S. court
 proceedings in the case was unnecessary because U.S. Attorney General Janet
 Reno had already ruled that his son should be returned to him in Cuba. A
 spokesman at the Cuban Interests Section in Washington, D.C., which
 represents the Castro government, declined to comment.

 MET FATHER

 In his statement, Craig took pains to indicate that it was Gonzalez, and not
 Cuban officials, who decided to hire him. Craig said he met alone with Elian's
 father in Cuba and felt ``satisfied that Mr. Gonzalez is not being pressured or
 coerced in any way in his desire to be reunited with his son.

 ``We have informed the Department of Justice that Juan Miguel Gonzalez is
 prepared to come to the United States to take custody of his son and will do so, if
 necessary, at the earliest possible moment,'' Craig said.

 Craig, who turned 55 on March 4, is known not merely as an able lawyer, but also
 as a politically savvy ``fixer'' with long experience and deep connections in
 Washington, where he served as a top foreign policy advisor to Sen. Edward
 Kennedy and a senior aide to Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.

 CUBA EXPERIENCE

 He is no stranger to Cuba. In 1986, while working for Kennedy, he traveled to the
 island to negotiate the release of the last two imprisoned Bay of Pigs
 combatants.

 A longtime friend of Clinton and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton -- all three
 attended Yale Law School at the same time -- Craig was tapped by the president
 to steer his successful fight against impeachment precisely because he
 combined diplomatic and lawyerly qualities with the instincts of a political
 scrapper.

 Craig and a partner used an insanity defense to win acquittal for John Hinckley
 Jr., who shot President Ronald Reagan.

                     Copyright 2000 Miami Herald