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THE REGISTER'S
EDITORIALS
A profile in politics
Score another victory for partisan politics, the ultimate power
in the game of government. Republican William Weld has given up the battle to be the
U.S. ambassador to Mexico, after resigning the governorship of Massachusetts earlier this
summer to fight for the job.
His withdrawal resulted from the implacable animosity of Senator Jesse
Helms, Republican of North Carolina. But it was an animosity that needn't have been
allowed to carry the day. Helms, possibly the greatest embarrassment the U.S. Senate
has known since the days of Mississippi's Theodore Bilbo, has been around so long that he
rose to the important chairmanship of the Committee on Foreign Relations. He opposes
Weld, he says, because Weld favors medicinal use of marijuana and needle exchanges to
reduce transmittal of blood-borne diseases. Both are sensible positions, but to
Helms they mean Weld is "soft on drugs." Hence Helms refused to allow
confirmation hearings before his committee.
As presidential spokesman Mike McCurry said in July, "The
Constitution does not grant to one individual senator the right to stand in the way of the
prerogative of a president to name foreign emissaries...." Right, but the
excercise of a constitutional right can sometimes demand fortitude.
The Foreign Relations Committee could have voted on the Weld nomination
without Helms' sanction. But the committee wasn't about to risk offending its
powerful chairman. And, while the committee has a 10-8 Republican majority, to a
number of GOP members, Weld isn't "their kind" of Republican; he tends to
moderation.
Why, then, didn't the full Senate take the nomination out of the hands
of the committee? Same political makeup; same answer.
Jesse Helms |
William Weld |
Tuesday, September 16, 1997, Page 8A
The Des Moines Register
Post Office Box 957
Des Moines, Iowa 50304
515-284-8000 voice
515-284-2511 fax
letters@news.dmreg.com
Related article "Embarrassment to the GOP"
by U.S. Representative Jim Leach (1st Dist. Iowa)
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