Weld Deserves a Hearing on Mexico Nomination

William F. Weld, who announced Monday that he is resigning today as the governor of Massachusetts, has launched a full-time crusade to defend his nomination as U.S. ambassador to Mexico. His fervor appears to match that of Jesse Helms, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman, who refuses to even let committee members question Weld.

Republican Weld is the sort of moderate and experienced politician who could make a very effective ambassador to Mexico. In a long-shot bid to preserve his nomination, Weld an nounced his resignation and said he will be in Washington later this week to make his case to members of his party including, perhaps, the senator from North Carolina.

This whole episode is wrapped in enough electoral ambition--many believe Weld wants to be president--and internal party politics to fill a television miniseries, but the bottom line is that Weld or any other ambassadorial nominee deserves a public hearing.

The Senate’s antiquated set of customs that allows one committee chairman to block a nomination ought to be reformed. There is no disputing the constitutional right of the Senate to advise and to confirm the president’s ambassadorial appointments. But such power ought to be exercised by more than one person, in this case a man caught up in a personal vendetta against his own party’s moderate wing.

Helms has clashed with Weld on issues such as abortion and drug abuse. From Weld’s support of the medical use of marijuana and a needle exchange program for addicts, Helms draws the conclusion that the governor is soft on drugs and thus unqualified to serve in Mexico, one of the nations beset by trafficking in drugs that end up in the United States.

The odds against Weld are lengthened by the Clinton administration’s rather halfhearted backing, which was evident again Monday in a tepid statement of support. Clinton’s lukewarm embrace seems typical of this administration’s unwillingness to fight hard for its judicial and ambassadorial nominees.

Weld has described the situation as a fight for the soul of the Republican Party. If Weld indeed has presidential, or senatorial, ambitions for 2000, this fight with Helms will give him needed media exposure. But even cynics will have to admire him for giving up his safe, influential platform in Massachusetts for what unfortunately is likely to be a quixotic battle. For all that, Weld at least deserves a hearing on his nomination to be ambassador to a nation so crucial to U.S. interests.