Ready, Set, Lapse

IF BILL CLINTON WANTS HIS TOP OFFICIALS TO BE, IN Dwight Eisenhower's famous words, "clean as a hound's tooth," he'd better start handing out the toothpaste.

A little slow on the ethical uptake

Commerce Secretary-designate Ronald Brown was all set to be the guest of honor at a lavish Kennedy Center gala for which a group of corporations were reportedly asked to ante up $10,000 apiece. Among them were Anheuser-Busch, J.C. Penney and PepsiCo. Brown apparently failed to see any prospective conflict of interest, until the press and Clinton himself thought otherwise. Brown canceled out.

Never ask a lawyer for legal advice

Zoe Baird, Attorney General-designate of all things, had employed two undocumented Peruvian aliens as household workers and failed to pay Social Security taxes on their salaries. To her credit, Baird disclosed this to Clinton before her appointment and to the FBI during its investigation. Her husband Paul Gewirtz, a Yale law professor, blamed the mess on bad legal advice, and the couple paid nearly $16,000 in taxes, penalties and interest.