Lani Guinier, whose nomination as the nation's top civil rights lawyer was pulled by President Clinton, said Friday she is "very frustrated" but still respects the president, a longtime friend.
"I do believe that I could have been confirmed and that I would have been an assistant attorney general for civil rights that would have made the president and the people of the United States proud," Lanier said on NBC's "Today" show.Clinton announced late Thursday he was withdrawing the nomination of the University of Pennsylvania law professor, despite a 20-year friendship, after a 75-minute meeting with her in the Oval Office. Clinton said he could not defend some of her views on voting rights.
It was a deep political embarrassment for Clinton and one that may cost him dearly in support from women's and civil rights groups, an important portion of his constituency. Leaders of these groups had spent much of the day trying to put pressure on Clinton to stick with Guinier, saying that to do otherwise would show weakness and lack of principle.
Guinier, a Yale classmate of both Clinton and first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, made it clear that she did not step aside voluntarily. Nor did she agree with Clinton's decision to yank her nomination.
"To tell you the truth, I'm feeling very . . . frustrated that in my case the political process has not worked," she said, looking somber and drawn.
"I would have liked an opportunity to talk before the American people in a public and formal setting, to describe the vision that I have, which I share with the president, of a society in which we move beyond polarization and toward racial healing," she said.
"I believe in democracy. I believe in fundamental fairness. And I believe I was entitled to a hearing before the Senate," she said.
Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, - who would have led Republican opposition to Guinier - agreed. "I feel badly for Professor Guinier personally because she should have been given a full and fair opportunity to present her positions to the Judiciary Committee.
"She is a provocative and interesting scholar who has clearly studied, litigated and taught in the field of voting rights," Hatch said.
Guinier said she told Clinton in their Oval Office meeting "that whatever he decided, I would still respect him. And I do."
But some said it was just another demonstration of Clinton's lack of resolve.
"He retreated from the covenant," said Jesse Jackson, listing a series of issues on which Clinton compromised to satisfy conservatives, such as cutting back promised urban aid, allowing continued repatriation of Haitian refugees and being slow to recognize the African nation of Angola.
"These issues have accumulated," Jackson said. "We see this pattern of retreat. I sense in the coming days, there will be more outcry, and a return to combinations of lobbying, litigation and mass action in the street."
Clinton said that he had not read Guinier's academic writings before he nominated her in April. Guinier Friday declined to criticize him for that, saying, "My mother has a hard time reading my academic writings, so I certainly can't fault anyone who doesn't" read them.
Told her mother was not the president, she said: "Well, that's true. That's true. (But) I don't think that my academic writings were the appropriate subject for this debate."
With Guinier gone, there are few names circulating to replace her. The most-mentioned possibility was Elaine Jones, director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. Jones has said - and reiterated Thursday - that she was not interested in the post.
Hatch said, "I hope the president will now find someone who is committed to fairness to all persons on civil rights issues."