Baird Apologizes to Senate for Hiring Illegal Workers : Cabinet: Confirmation vote put off until Thursday as attorney general-designate undergoes sharp questioning.

Atty. Gen.-designate Zoe Baird apologized to Congress on Tuesday for hiring two illegal immigrants as household servants, but was subjected to unexpectedly pointed questioning about the controversy and faced a delay in her confirmation beyond Inauguration Day.

Baird, who was fined $2,900 for violating immigration law and belatedly paid about $12,000 in Social Security and unemployment insurance taxes, accepted responsibility for her actions in testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee. She also laid part of the blame on her husband, Yale Law school professor Paul D. Gewirtz.

“Our decision to hire the couple was wrong, and I deeply regret it,” she testified. “I ask you to view this in the context of my overall record. . . . I was acting more as a mother than someone who would be sitting here designated as attorney general.”

Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.), chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said a vote on Baird’s confirmation would be delayed until Thursday. Biden indicated that he would call her husband as a witness for additional questioning about their employment in 1990 of a Peruvian couple who had entered the United States illegally and lacked work permits.

“To me, this is a big deal,” Biden scolded Baird. “Your husband, a leading constitutional lawyer, should know better and did know better. . . . The vast majority (of Americans) have child care difficulties, with one-fiftieth of the income you and your husband have, and they do not violate the law.”

While several senators said they accepted Baird’s explanation for breaking the law, the relentless focus on her troubles with the Immigration and Naturalization Service dominated the daylong hearing and suggested that she faces a bumpier road to confirmation than most observers anticipated. Her eventual approval by the Senate still appeared likely, however.

Baird, 40, the $500,000-a-year general counsel of the Aetna Life & Casualty Co., was subjected to intense questioning by both Democrats and Republicans on the 18-member judiciary panel, despite earlier statements by many senators that they would support her confirmation.

Sen. Paul Simon (D-Ill.), a Baird backer, said that telephone calls to his offices in Chicago and Washington were running more than 40-to-1 against her, while Sen. Howard K. Metzenbaum (D-Ohio) said he got 50 calls opposed to Baird and none in her favor.

But Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), the panel’s top Republican, said the episode would not stand in the way of Baird’s confirmation by the full Senate. “I think you’ve put it behind you,” he said.

Baird said she tried for two months to find a suitable person to provide live-in child care for her son, Julian, who was 8 months old when the Peruvians, Victor and Lillian Cordero, were hired in July, 1990. Baird’s husband hired them through an employment agency and knew at the time they were in the country illegally, she said.

One year later, she said, he filed a request to the Labor Department seeking permission to hire the couple because no American citizens could be found to fill the jobs. In April of last year, she said, her husband filed a request with the Immigration Service for “green card” work permits.

“My husband’s focus was not on paperwork,” she said. “I should have been having more consultations with my husband about it.”

The Corderos were paid a total of $2,000 a month, or about $250 each per week, Baird testified, and were given two weeks paid vacation, four paid holidays and a Christmas bonus.

Baird said she and her husband did not pay Social Security or unemployment insurance taxes for the couple because they were told by an immigration attorney in Connecticut that this could not be done until the Corderos received Social Security numbers. After Baird’s selection by Bill Clinton, a lawyer with the transition team found a way for back taxes, interest and penalties to be paid. The payment was made earlier this month.

Although overshadowed by the dramatic testimony about the immigration issue, Baird made clear she wanted to steer the Justice Department in some different directions.

She was the first nominee for the job to voice strong support for the independent counsel law, which expired last Dec. 15. Other attorneys general either opposed the statute or gave it only tacit support on grounds it eroded the authority of the department.

Baird promised to take politics out of legal decision-making. She said she would make public logs of her phone calls and names of visitors to her office as part of an open administration of justice.

Meanwhile, Senate committees on Tuesday swiftly approved seven nominees for other key posts--Warren Christopher as secretary of state, Donna Shalala as secretary of health and human services, Richard W. Riley as secretary of education, Robert B. Reich as secretary of labor, Hazel O’Leary as secretary of energy, Rep. Mike Espy (D-Miss.) as secretary of agriculture and Mickey Kantor as U.S. trade representative.

All were expected to win Senate confirmation today.

In his hearing before the Senate Finance Committee, Kantor promised to disqualify himself in any case involving the clients of his former employer, the politically connected law firm of Manatt, Phelps, Phillips & Kantor.

Despite his lack of experience in trade issues, Kantor displayed at least a superficial grasp of the major questions he will face. But when pressed on such controversial matters as auto imports, steel subsidies and other hot topics, Kantor kept his options open with replies such as “I want to look at that very carefully.”

Former Arizona Gov. Bruce Babbitt, Clinton’s choice for Interior secretary, ran into sharp questioning from Western-state Republicans because of the views he expressed when he headed the League of Conservation Voters, an environmental group.

Babbitt was cross-examined extensively by Sen. Malcolm Wallop (R-Wyo.) on whether he opposes the West’s tradition of multiple use of public lands. Babbitt replied that during his career as a lawyer he had represented a broad spectrum of views on public land issues, including those of ranchers.

Times staff writers John M. Broder and Rudy Abramson contributed to this story.