On Jan. 22, President Clinton accepted a request from Zoe Baird that her nomination to become attorney general be withdrawn.
It had been disclosed Jan. 14 that Baird and her husband had hired an illegal alien couple from Peru. The woman acted as Baird's nanny; the husband, their driver.
Prior to the disclosure, Baird had paid a $12,000 fine to the INS. She also paid back Social Security taxes for the couple.
Baird, a highly paid executive with the Aetna insurance company, said she hired the couple because she needed help with child care. Her nomination was withdrawn when polls showed that the public believed Baird felt she was above the law. Key senators also objected to someone they believed to be a "willful lawbreaker" heading the Justice Department.
Questions about hiring aliens and not paying taxes have dogged several Clinton appointees. Commerce Secretary Ron Brown paid back Social Security taxes he had not paid for a domestic employee. Federal Judge Kimba Wood, who was being considered for the U.S. Supreme Court, asked that she not be considered after it was disclosed she had hired an illegal alien, although at the time it was not illegal to do so.
Late in the year, it was disclosed that retired Admiral Bob Inman, who was nominated to become Defense Secretary, had not paid the Social Security taxes of an employee.
"Nannygate", as the Baird incident was called, came to symbolize a national problem in the search for affordable child care. Federal officials said it was evident that many people were hiring illegal aliens and that many others were ignoring tax laws which require Social Security taxes be paid for domestic employees.
