Clinton’s Picks Have High Casualty Rate

If President Clinton drops Henry Foster as the nominee for surgeon general, another name will go on the list of people who didn’t quite work out in the Clinton administration - sometimes before they even got the job.

The problems have ranged from a borrowed presidential helicopter to Social Security taxes not paid to comments on masturbation to a complicated legal theory about civil rights.

Some highlights:

Zoe Baird was allowed to withdraw as Clinton’s nominee for attorney general in January 1993, less than a month into the new administration. She and her husband, who earned more than $600,000, had hired two illegal Peruvian immigrants to care for their young son and to do housework. Their Social Security taxes were not paid.

U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood, Clinton’s second choice for attorney general, was dropped from consideration only a day after her name was quietly released in February 1993. She, too, had hired an illegal immigrant to baby-sit. Because of the timing of the baby sitter’s hiring, and because she had paid Social Security taxes, there was no violation of the law. Because of the similarity to the Zoe Baird incident, she was dropped anyway.

John Payton, the chief corporation counsel for the District of Columbia, withdrew from consideration for assistant attorney general for civil rights in December 1993 after it was revealed that he had not voted in 16 years. Payton was quietly done in by the Congressional Black Caucus because of his lukewarm attitude toward voting rights.

Adm. Bobby Ray Inman, a wellrespected intelligence officer, withdrew as nominee for secretary of defense in January 1994. At a bizarre press conference, he claimed that a New York columnist had cut a deal with Sen. Robert Dole, R-Kan., to smear his reputation and said, “I do not wish to provide those elements fodder for their daily attacks.” He presented no evidence.

Lani Guinier, a University of Pennsylvania law professor, had her nomination for assistant attorney general in charge of civil rights pulled by Clinton in June 1993. Clinton had known Guinier socially for years, but after she was attacked by conservatives as a “quota queen” for her aggressive promotion of voting rights, Clinton said he had been mistaken. “Had I read (her theories) before I nominated her, I would not have done so,” he said.

Associate Attorney General Webster Hubbell, a close friend and law partner of Hillary Rodham Clinton, resigned as the No. 3 person in the Justice Department in March 1994. Hubbell returned to Little Rock, Ark., to fight charges that he had improperly billed clients at the Rose Law Firm, but later pleaded guilty to such charges.

David Watkins, a longtime political ally of Clinton, was asked to resign as White House director of administration in May 1994 after he commandeered Marine One, the president’s helicopter, to fly to and from a golf outing in Maryland.

Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy, originally one of the rising stars of the administration, was forced out in December 1994 following growing charges of ethical problems, including accepting gifts, lodging and sports tickets from Tyson Foods Inc. of Arkansas. Espy also was accused of delaying tough, new rules for inspecting poultry, a move that might benefit Tyson.

Joycelyn Elders, whom Henry Foster was selected to follow, was fired as surgeon general by President Clinton in December 1994 after outraging conservatives. She accused the Catholic Church of having a “love affair with the fetus,” referred to the “un-Christian religious right,” promoted condom use and suggested her son was set up for a cocaine bust. Clinton had enough after she suggested masturbation was “something that perhaps should be taught” in school.