Already a third potential attorney general nomination--that of Charles Ruff--has been derailed by revelations that the prospective nominee failed to pay Social Security taxes for his maid. And we have yet to see whether a "Maid-gate" scandal will end Brown's tenure prematurely after his corporate connections failed to do so.

Hopefully, these so called scandals will be no more damaging than youthful marijuana smoking. After Douglas Ginsberg's nomination to the Supreme Court was withdrawn because he had smoked pot years earlier, a host of public figures admitted to one-time marijuana experimentation. Senator Al Gore '69 was among them, and his ascendancy to the vice presidency (as well as non-inhaler Clinton's election) is proof that the scandal has lost its potency.

Clinton's mistake has been to read public anger at Baird's actions as a sign that no one with employee-related problems is eligible for public office. Baird's case was a unique one: her lame attempts to align herself with working mothers by bemoaning the difficulty of finding good child care fell on deaf ears when it was revealed that she and her husband make over $600,000 a year and were paying their nanny less than six dollars an hour.

The onslaught of phone calls condemning Zoe Baird was motivated by resentment at her elitist arrogance. Baird's nomination failed because she represented a quality the voters had begun to detest in George Bush: a disconnection from the very real struggles of Americans who lack six- or seven-figure incomes. After a year of campaign foreplay with the "forgotten middle class," Clinton failed to deliver, leaving the middle class feeling frustrated and forgotten once more.

But this is not a license to reject law-abiding and respectable citizens like Kimba Wood. By many accounts, Wood could have been a fantastic attorney general. A Federal District Judge since 1988, she has a reputation for toughness that she earned by sentencing Michael Milken to 10 years in federal prison after he pleaded guilty to six counts of fraud.

Judges and attorneys alike have praised her legal skills, her graciousness and her ability to command the courtroom. And her five years spent presiding over criminal cases help alleviate concerns that she has no experience as a prosecutor.

Unfortunately, a spineless overreaction to the Baird fiasco prevented Clinton from nominating Wood. That decision is a political setback for Clinton's administration, an unfortunate loss for the country and a grievous injustice to Kimba Wood.