Lani Guinier

President Clinton's choice to head the long-leaderless Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice seems an excellent one, judged by his professional and personal history. Deval Patrick rose from very humble surroundings to over-achiever status at Harvard Law School and then, after litigating cases for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, made partner at an establishment Boston law firm which has given Massachusetts two recent governors, one a liberal Democrat and the other a conservative Republican.

ATLANTA -- The day after a federal court dismantled two of Georgia's congressional districts -- designed to include mostly black voters -- elected officials and political analysts said the action was potentially disastrous for black political power and had implications for several other states where such districts have been challenged.On the other hand, they said, such a move, if it survives a promised appeal, might lead to a new wave of voter activism.Some saw an opening for the kind of proportional voting systems that the University of Pennsylvania's Lani Guinier made headlines with.

WASHINGTON -- The Congressional Black Caucus, the group that vetoed one of President Clinton's earlier choices for the government's top civil rights post, unanimously endorsed yesterday the current choice: Boston lawyer Deval Patrick."

The NAACP wrapped up its annual convention in Indianapolis Thursday with its membership energized behind a new leader, a broader mandate and an endowment launched with $2 million from the foundation set up by the late Reginald Lewis.For the moment, at least, the nation's oldest and largest civil rights group appears to have put behind it the flap over executive director Benjamin Chavis' endorsement of Charlotte as the site for a new football team -- a misstep that turned into a public relations nightmare.

With the withdrawal of President Clinton's second nominee, John Payton, to head the Justice Department's civil rights division, the administration's efforts to get the troubled agency on track appear to be back to square one. Mr. Clinton withdrew the nomination of his first choice for the post, University of Pennsylvania law professor Lani Guinier, after conservatives attacked her views on minority voting rights as "too radical."Mr. Payton, who presently is corporation counsel for the District of Columbia government, seemed a safe choice until a few weeks ago. But then members of the Congressional Black Caucus raised a red flag over the nominee's lukewarm commitment to increasing minority representation in Congress through creation of black-majority voting districts.

Republican Kay Bailey Hutchison's landslide victory over Democratic Sen. Bob Krueger has to be cause for concern among Democrats in the states where their incumbents' terms expire next year. Senator Krueger is not a great vote-getter, but he was never swamped like this in his previous losses. Senator-elect Hutchison got 67 percent of the vote. She emphasized her opposition to new taxes and criticized President Clinton and his party for not proposing greater spending cuts. The president's unpopularity seems to be catching.

THE FIGHT against President Clinton's nominee to head the Justice Department's civil rights division has gathered steam with the Supreme Court ruling that the anti-affirmative action measure, Proposition 209, is constitutional. Bill Lann Lee is well qualified for the position, having spent most of his career representing civil rights organizations, including the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. But those associations are being used against him.Senate Republicans who have blocked his nomination since July treat Mr. Lee like some antichrist who must not be allowed a position of higher authority.

WASHINGTON -- In what has been called the last battle of the Cold War, longtime liberal activist Morton Halperin faced the Senate Armed Services Committee yesterday and defended his thoughts and actions on policies from Vietnam to Somalia.Mr. Halperin, President Clinton's most controversial nominee since Lani Guinier, faces a tough fight for confirmation as assistant secretary of defense for democracy and peacekeeping. His opponents charge that the former Vietnam anti-war activist and CIA critic now is too eager to send troops abroad under the United Nations banner, and is unfit for a sensitive Pentagon post.

INDIANAPOLIS -- An embittered Lani Guinier said yesterday that she had "lost respect for the political process" and that she had been "vilified as a mad woman with strange hair . . . a strange name and strange ideas."The black University of Pennsylvania law professor, who was dumped last month by President Clinton as his nominee to be the government's top civil rights official, received a heroine's welcome from the NAACP's 84th annual convention.Ms. Guinier attacked the Supreme Court's recent decision on congressional redistricting in North Carolina and said she was "alarmed" by Justice Clarence Thomas' vote with the 5-4 majority.

WASHINGTON -- It doesn't take a political genius to know that the Lani Guinier episode is still another case of President Clinton's shooting himself in the foot. You can hear that on any street corner.The president once again has managed to put himself on the defensive and quickly blot out the memories of the success he scored only a week earlier in the House of Representatives.What is less obvious is the way the anger of black leaders at the president's handling of the situation has been exacerbated by the history of their dealings with him -- to the point that Clinton is facing a daunting fence-mending job.During the 1992 campaign, Clinton raised some unease among black Democrats and other liberals by his emphasis on such issues as welfare reform.