(http://www.chron.com/content/chronicle/nation/97/09/15/weld.20.html)

Weld still hopes to get ambassadorial post

By CRAGG HINES

Copyright 1997 Houston Chronicle Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON Former Gov. William Weld of Massachusetts,
refusing to acknowledge the growing evidence that his
nomination to be ambassador to Mexico is doomed, said Sunday
that public indignation at autocratic Senate procedures
could yet see his appointment approved.

White House and congressional sources alike, however, said
that Weld, if he genuinely is counting on popular support to
overcome the objections of Sen. Jesse Helms, RN.C., was
placing his hopes on a slender reed.

Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, RMiss., renewing his
view that "the nomination is dead," called on President
Clinton to propose another envoy for Mexico.

"The president, for the sake of our relationships with
Mexico and all the other issues that we need to take up,
needs to go ahead and find a way to move away from this
nominee and come up with another very qualified" prospect,
Lott said on CBS' Face the Nation.

Although the White House maintained publicly that Clinton
remains committed to Weld, former Clinton adviser George
Stephanopoulos said the White House has given up.

"The president's thrown in the towel on Weld. He just can't
say so," Stephanopoulos said on ABC's This Week, for which
he is now an analyst.

Weld's nomination has run into the intransigent opposition
of Helms, who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
The post gives Helms virtually dictatorial powers, as he
showed Friday. Although other committee members forced a
session to be convened, Helms used his authority to prevent
any substantive discussion of the nomination and refused to
allow Weld to speak.

Helms contends that Weld is a poor choice for the sensitive
diplomatic position because he favors legal uses of
marijuana and distribution of clean syringes to drug users
as part of the campaign against AIDS.

Weld, a leader of the dwindling moderate wing of the
Republican Party, claims Helms' opposition is ideological.

Weld, appearing on NBC's Meet the Press, said public opinion
could overcome Helms' objections and build enough to force
Lott to call for a vote on his nomination something the
majority leader has said he will not do.

"I think that this battle is now in the court of public
opinion," Weld said. "There are 100 senators. If they hear
from people out there on Main Street, I think that's what's
going to change the dynamic here.

"I think senators throughout the Senate are going to hear
from their constituents," Weld said, "and then there's just
going to be a center of gravity that's going to move and
force action to be taken."

Political strategists in Congress and the White House said
that no matter how arbitrary Helms' actions may seem, there
is little public interest in the issue outside the handful
of people who pay close attention to matters of legislative
procedure.

Weld insisted that Clinton "feels very strongly" about
seeking to press the nomination forward despite Helms'
opposition.

White House spokeswoman Julie Green offered a full, if not
necessarily strenuous, reassertion of Clinton's support for
Weld, saying: "We fully support Governor Weld. The president
reaffirmed that in conversations with Governor Weld on
Friday and with Senator Lott on Saturday."

Lott conceded the Democratic White House was not unhappy to
see the Weld nomination exacerbate ideological strife within
the Republican Party.

"I think there's been political mischief involved here from
the beginning," Lott said. The majority leader said that
Weld, in his attacks on Helms, had mishandled the
nomination.