The first: Zoe Baird withdrew as Clinton's attorney general nominee in 1993
Don't be silly, you're thinking. No one cares. And you'd pretty much be right. But let's imagine we were talking about, say, Dorothy Rumsfeld and Colleen Powell and their respective domestic employees? I'd wager everyone would care very much — and that those women would never win confirmation.
As Bush nominee Linda Chavez learned Tuesday and Clinton nominees Zoe Baird and Kimba Wood learned back in 1993, many Americans appear to feel there's something singularly distressing about a woman who's not totally in control of household events and expenditures. It's the household after all, we murmur. Shouldn't she have been spending more time at home? That way she wouldn't have had to hire illegal immigrants to do her job in the first place.
Whitman's lucky escape
Sure, men have been called up on these sorts of charges — Cabinet appointees Ron Brown and Federico Pena and Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer all faced similar accusations over the past 10 years — but not one of their eventual appointments was derailed by what was variously portrayed as delinquency or plain old carelessness. Meanwhile, Bush's EPA chief–designate, Christine Todd Whitman, narrowly escaped hired-help disaster during her 1993 gubernatorial run when it turned out her opponent had also hired an illegal worker, thus balancing the scales of wrongdoing.
Baird, Chavez and Wood weren't quite so lucky. All three lost their bids for Cabinet-level appointments because they'd hired domestic workers whose immigration status and/or pay situation came under extreme scrutiny. Each has her own story: After eight days of questioning, Baird admitted that her family had employed an illegal Peruvian couple whose wages were not taxed. Chavez insists she did nothing wrong from an employment point of view, claiming that an illegal Guatemalan immigrant living in her home was there out of charity, not to work — which is why Chavez never paid taxes on her wages. She could, however, be accused of harboring an illegal alien; after first claiming that she didn't know the woman was in the country without permission, she later admitted she knew the situation. Wood's case was particularly painful to watch. Accused of hiring an illegal several years before — though at the time, that was not against the law — Wood was, most agree, demonized unfairly simply because her nomination followed Baird's, and she faced an opposition whose appetite had been duly whetted. Wood withdrew her name from consideration before a vote could be taken; no one has ever found evidence of misconduct on Wood's part.
Illegal labor has become a fact of life
Baird and Chavez both sparked righteous indignation from political enemies — and, predictably, heated support from backers. And there are plenty of things about illegal labor to get upset about: These workers are unprotected from abuse from employers and are often paid less than the minimum wage. And employers should know better than to shirk their responsibilities to the great tax code of America.
But as plenty of people have pointed out over the last few days, illegal household labor has become a fact of life in this country. There simply aren't enough people in the "legal" pool to fill the need for domestic workers. And the demand, of course, has gone up dramatically in the past two decades as women have entered the workforce and left children and dirty dishes at home.
And when something goes awry in that realm, we reflexively look to mothers and wives for an explanation — even if their careers take them as far from the household sphere as their husbands'. The message to women, although subtle, is clear: You want a career? Fine. Just don't forget where your primary responsibility lies.