Enemy Combatant
Saturday, December 11, 2004
Latest Factoid From The Ministry Of Truth: Lani Guinier Had "Nanny Problems"
Buried in the stories of Bernard Kerik's withdrawal of his name for head of Homeland Security, is this little bit of "revisionist history:"
Lani Guinier, a Clinton classmate at Yale University Law School, was the president's choice to head the Justice Department's civil rights division until it was learned that she had not paid taxes for a domestic worker.
No, no, no. Christ, this was not that long ago; some of us actually remember this: Kimba Wood had "nanny problems." Zoe Baird had "nanny problems." Lani Guinier, on the other hand, got smeared by the rightwing as "The Quota Queen," and her name was withdrawn because of her "controversial" writings about race and discrimination remedies.
I challenge anybody out there to find me a contemporaneous account (i.e., not written in the last few weeks or months) that shows that Lani Guinier had any "domestic help" controversies discussed in the media at the time of her Justice Dept. nomination, or its withdrawal shortly thereafter. This is such lazy, sloppy, dishonest reporting -- I expect to hear next that Robert Bork withdrew his name from consideration as a Supreme Court Justice because he smoked pot with his college students at parties!
