Helms rips Clinton choice for ambassador to Mexico
By JAMES ROSEN
SCRiPPS~McCLATCHY NEWS SERVICE

WASHINGTON Sen. Jesse. Helms vowed Tuesday to block President
Clinton's choice for ambassador to Mexico, Republican Gov. William F.
Weld of Massachusetts, because of his support for the medicinal use of
marijuana.

Helms, RN.C., warned Clinton, who has said he wants Weld as his envoy
in Mexico City but hasn't nominated him, not to send Weld's name to the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which Helms chairs.

"If they want a hearing on it, on that opening, on that ambassadorship,
they ought to get somebody else," Helms told Fox TV News. "I don't think
that he is ambassador quality; and neither do a great many of the
conservatives and Republicans in the state of Massachusetts."

Asked whether Weld's support for limited use of marijuana as a
painkiller is a concern to him, Helms replied: "Certainly is, certainly
is, among other things."

Helms said he "was felt [left]out" by the Clinton administration on
Weld's nomination and had made his opposition clear.

White House spokesman Barry Toiv said Secretary of State Madeleine
Aibright intends to meet with Helms soon to discuss Weld, a moderate who
would be the first Republican appointed to a key foreign diplomatic post
by Clinton. He named

Republican Sen. William S. Cohen defense secretary earlier this year.

"The president continues to believe that Governor Weld would be a very
strong choice for ambassador to Mexico, and continues to be the
president's choice," Toiv said.

Toiv pointed out that several Republican members of the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee, among them Richard Lugar of Indiana and Paul
Coverdell of Georgia, have voiced support for Weld, who was
overwhelmingly reelected governor in 1994 but lost a close Senate race
last fall to Democratic Sen. John F Kerry.