lani and the nanny

The Blue Mass Group blog has a post about how Lani Guinier has been characterized as having had a "nanny problem", just like Bernie Kerik. (Stories here, here and here, just for starters).

Only the press is confusing Guinier with Zoe Baird and Kimba Wood. I went back on Nexis and read some of the stories from 1993, and Blue Mass Group is absolutely correct. On June 3, 1993, President Clinton withdrew Guinier's nomination to head the Justice Department's civil rights division, saying he couldn't defend her views on voting rights. (Libertarian lawyer Clint Bolick started the controversy by describing Guinier as a "quota queen" in the WSJ).

I think the misinformation might have started with this AP sidebar. Eugene Volkh says the media isn't just wrong on this, "they're wrong in a way that falsely accuses someone of violating the law. That doesn't speak well of their trustworthiness in other fields." Whoops....