The Zoe Baird Affair: What Does It Say About America? : She was right to withdraw, but the issues raised won’t go away

President Bill Clinton’s nominee to be attorney general, Zoe Baird, did the right thing by withdrawing her candidacy to end the extraordinary--and arguably overblown--political flap that developed because of her admission that she had employed an illegal immigrant couple as a nanny and a chauffeur.

Despite the fact that Baird did what thousands of other people do, forthrightly admitted it--indeed, brought it to the attention of the Clinton transition team herself--and tried to rectify matters by paying a fine and back taxes, the issue would not go away. It even threatened to overshadow the otherwise upbeat beginnings of the Clinton Administration. With that, the Hartford, Conn., attorney decided to push it no further. Asking the President to find another head for the Justice Department, Baird, 40, gave up her hopes of becoming the nation’s first female attorney general.

Now Clinton must go back to the proverbial drawing board and find another lawyer who is not just highly qualified--few questioned Baird’s competence--but can also pass the stern moral and ethical tests that were applied to his first nominee. That may not be easy, for Clinton now almost has to worry that there isn’t even the slightest question about whomever he puts up next. The scrutiny that Baird endured from senators on the Judiciary Committee--who initially told the White House that the hiring was not a serious impediment to confirmation--attests to the unsettling uncertainties inherent in the process. That process will not always guarantee uniform standards. It’s true that any attorney general has to enforce immigration laws, but what would the public reaction be, for example, if every senator on the Judiciary Committee (or for that matter every member of the Senate) who might own a ranch, farm or other agricultural business were asked if he or she had ever employed an illegal immigrant? And how about the millions of us who patronize businesses that employ low-wage labor, from carwashes to restaurants to gardening services to hotels. Can any of us honestly say we’ve never used the labor of an illegal immigrant, even indirectly?

In a sense, Baird was a victim of this nation’s hypocrisy.

First, the hypocrisy of our immigration laws. We pretend we want to limit the illegal entry of foreigners by passing laws against employing them. But we never send out enough immigration officers to enforce the law effectively. Moreover, we also make exceptions for politically powerful industries, such as agriculture, which argues (often with justification) that foreign farm workers must be employed to pick crops because few U.S. citizens are willing to do that kind of work.

Then there is the hypocrisy of how we as a nation care for small children. Despite the fact that millions of American women must work to help support their families, we don’t provide nearly enough quality child care to meet the demand. That forces many women to use alternatives that are technically illegal, whether employing undocumented nannies, leaving their children at an unlicensed child care center in a neighbor’s house or even leaving kids home alone for much of the day.

Finally, there is the hypocrisy of how Americans deal with class differences. We try to pretend they don’t matter in this country. Yet how much of the powerful public outrage against Baird was fueled not by anger at what she did but by resentment, and even envy, at the fact she and her husband, a Yale Law School professor, are highly paid professionals who could afford to hire domestic help?

Before too long the President will surely find another attorney who can be approved for the Justice Department job. And eventually this sorry little episode will pass from the scene to be remembered as the first minor domestic political crisis of the Clinton presidency. But the issues it forced us to think about--especially the need to draft more realistic immigration laws and to provide more and better child care for working families--must not fade from sight. They remain as huge challenges for America.