02/07/1993   BOSTON (AP) -- Some lawyers aren't giving up hope that
President Clinton will still pick the nation's first female attorney
general, even though two women have had to withdraw from
consideration for the job.
   "If he's got any guts he'll go out and find another good woman
and appoint her," said Victor Battaglia, of Wilmington, Del., one of
hundreds of lawyers attending the American Bar Association's
midwinter meeting.
   But whoever Clinton chooses, attorneys say he must be much more
careful in checking out the candidate's background if he is to avoid
a third embarrassment.
   U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood, viewed just a day earlier as
almost certain to get the job, withdrew her name on Friday after the
administration discovered she had hired an illegal alien for
household help.
   It was not against the law to hire an illegal alien when Wood
employed her nanny in 1986. But the disclosure followed the public
furor when Clinton's first nominee, corporate lawyer Zoe Baird,
admitted that she knowingly hired an illegal alien couple -- and did
not file Social Security taxes for them -- at a time when it was
illegal.
   "To say that now that two women have dropped out, it's time to
pick a male is ridiculous," said Joel P. Bennett of Washington, D.C.
"We have thousands and thousands of bright, capable women in this
country."
   Joanne M. Garvey of San Francisco agreed, saying, "If the
president is committed to appointing a woman there are a lot of
good, qualified women.
   "If he puts up a male candidate for attorney general, they ought
to ask him the same question" about whether he ever hired an illegal
alien, Garvey said.
   Others put less priority on a future nominee's sex. Clinton
should pick "just a damn fine lawyer, male or female, black, white,
green or whatever," said George E. Bushnell Jr. of Detroit.
   He said he did not fault Clinton for the two failed efforts to
name a woman.
   "This has been a very conscientious effort to not only do what is
correct and proper, but to try to establish a current value system
instead of the historic value system -- white, old, Anglo-Saxon
Protestant males of which I am one," Bushnell said.
   Stanley J. Cohn of New Orleans said Clinton had acted too
hastily, particularly in choosing Baird just before a self-imposed
Christmas deadline even though his staff knew of her legal problem.
   "He should have his staff investigate more thoroughly before he
lets the word out on who he intends to nominate," Cohn said. After
two failures, he said, "He's got to come up with a real superstar."
   Battaglia wondered if Clinton gave up too easily on Baird and
Wood.
   "He didn't seem to have too much staying power with either one of
them," he said. "The judge -- she didn't do anything wrong."