Source:   Washington Post
Address:  1150 15th St. NW
Address:  Washington DC 20071 0001
Pubdate:  Wed, 30 Jul 1997 Page A22
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpsrv/WPlate/199707/30/011l073097idx.h
tml

`Washington Rules'

GOV. WILLIAM Weld of Massachusetts is being widely chided for being a
kind of Republican Don Quixote riding off to do surely doomed battle 
with Sen. Jesse Helms. How can he imagine he can push his nomination as 
President Clinton's ambassador to Mexico past the arbitrary and 
ironhanded opposition of the powerful chairman of the Senate Foreign 
Relations Committee? Mr. Weld's challenge to Sen. Helms and the 
"Washington rules" and his appeal to a wider political forum are taken 
as establishing his terminal naivete.

But wait a minute. What the nominee has been saying about the senator, 
who is in a position all by himself to cut off the nomination, may be 
untraditional and indiscreet, but it happens to be true. It is downright 
refreshing to hear him say so. Mr. Helms does use the powers of the 
chair to deny nominees and issues he opposes an opportunity to be heard 
not simply by his committee but by the Senate as a whole. His resistance 
to the nominee does in fact amount to "ideological extortion," as Gov. 
Weld has complained. He is denying the governor an opportunity to serve 
in the Mexico Embassy because of some different views Mr. Weld holds on 
sensitive and arguable social issues. What else is it?

We could have an interesting discussion about motives and purposes: 
about President Clinton's in nominating a Republican and in now finding 
the right tone of voice in his overall relations with Sen. Helms to 
confront him on this issue. And about the nowformer Massachusetts 
governor's motives and purposes in accepting the nomination, in 
resigning the governorship to campaign for the ambassadorship and in 
using these circumstances to promote a brand of Republicanism distant 
from Jesse Helms's. It has been a turbulent summer for congressional 
Republicans, and it's not even half over.

In fact, the post of ambassador to Mexico is one of the more demanding 
in U.S. foreign policy. It takes someone with high political as well as 
diplomatic skills. The plain implication of Sen. Helms's refusal to let 
his colleagues make their own decision is that he believes they might 
find Gov. Weld a good man for the job. 

 © Copyright 1997 The Washington Post Company