New Nominee Sought to Head Justice Dept.

After suffering the first major setback of his presidency, President Clinton on Friday began searching for an attorney general after Zoe Baird withdrew in the face of mounting controversy over her employment of an illegal immigrant couple.

White House Communications Director George Stephanopoulos said Clinton will not limit the search to women candidates, adding that he is “going to look for the best candidate for attorney general.” Clinton will be working on the choice over the weekend, and a decision is likely sometime next week, Stephanopoulos said.

Judge Patricia Wald of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington, who was the leading choice for the position originally but made clear she would not accept, quickly re-emerged as a possible candidate. She has talked with White House officials, but how detailed the discussions were remained unclear.

Wald “was an appointment that even though it never reached fruition had generated enormous support,” one official said. “Having had the ‘perfect candidate,’ it’s only logical that they might go back.”

Sources close to Wald cited reasons for her earlier pullout, ranging from a desire to spend time with her young grandchildren to not wanting to lose a large portion of her lifetime judicial retirement. She also was understood to have balked at not having a major voice over the choice of her deputy and assistant attorneys general.

Richard Arnold, chief judge of the U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals and a longtime Clinton friend, also was mentioned as a possibility for attorney general.

“After all this, Arnold would be an easy choice” for Clinton, said an Administration source close to the President. “Arnold is a guy whom Clinton trusts implicitly. He’s very close to (Bruce) Lindsey,” one of Clinton’s closest advisers on these sorts of issues.

Other names being circulated in the Administration on Friday were:

--Drew S. Days III, the first black to head the Justice Department’s civil rights division, where he served during the Jimmy Carter Administration. He is now a professor at Yale Law School.

--Peter Edelman, who headed the Justice Department transition effort for Clinton. Edelman is a law professor at Georgetown and is the husband of Marian Wright Edelman, president of the Children’s Defense Fund, who is close to Hillary Clinton. He served as an aide to the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy.

--Charles F. C. Ruff, the fourth and last of the Watergate special prosecutors and now a defense attorney here. Ruff also served as U.S. attorney in the District of Columbia.

As those names were being discussed among White House officials, others were being offered by women’s rights organizations intent on placing a woman in the post. Those included two Washington lawyers, Brooksley E. Born, whom Clinton passed over in picking Baird, and Jamie Gorelick, who assisted Baird in her confirmation effort.

Harriet Woods of the Coalition for Women’s Appointments, an alliance of various women’s political groups, also is gathering and submitting new names, such as Janet Reno, state’s attorney in Dade County, Fla., and Judge Noel Kramer of the District of Columbia Superior Court.

Those working on the selection include Hillary Clinton, White House Chief of Staff Thomas (Mack) McLarty, counsel to the President Bernard Nussbaum and Lindsey, White House personnel chief, according to a White House official. The First Lady “will provide advice,” the official said, “but she’s not the point person.”

Baird withdrew late Thursday night as she faced fast-crumbling support in the Senate and as irate callers continued to flood senators’ offices with complaints that Baird, who earned $507,000 a year as general counsel and senior vice president of Aetna Casualty & Life Co., had hired a Peruvian couple to provide care for her then 8-month-old son and had failed to pay Social Security and other taxes for them.

Clinton accepted the withdrawal immediately, saying he was acting “with sadness.”

Baird’s withdrawal drew relief and praise from Democratic and Republican senators alike, many of whom were pleased the controversy ended quickly and that they would not have to vote on it.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who questioned Baird closely at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Thursday, said “the immigration issues and the public’s strong response would have made it difficult for her to effectively manage immigration matters within the jurisdiction of the Department of Justice.”

She said Baird had “made the right decision for herself, the Clinton Administration and people throughout the country.”

Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.), former chairman of the committee, said “the fact that she knowingly flouted the law would have compromised her effectiveness as the nation’s chief law enforcement official.”

And Sen. Orrin G. Hatch of Utah, the ranking Republican on the panel and Baird’s leading supporter, contended she had been done in by “the far left,” but offered no evidence to back up the charge.

Times staff writers Henry Weinstein in Los Angeles and David Lauter in Washington contributed to this story.