Word: welds
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There's only one man in Washington who can stop Jesse Helms and possibly salvage Governor William Weld's troubled nomination to be ambassador to Mexico. It turns out to be a woman. Ever since her gooey confirmation hearings, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has made it her business to charm the courtly porcupine who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, eschewing the diplomatic handshake in favor of kissing his Moon Pie face (both cheeks) and interrupting her global travels to tour his home state, where she gave the Jesse Helms Lecture at Wingate University, Helms' alma mater. As Helms...
...comes a real test of the Albright charm offensive. Because of Helms' opposition, the Weld nomination was considered dead on arrival when the White House formally submitted his name last week. In June, Helms had said publicly that the Massachusetts Governor was below "ambassador quality" and that he did not want to send drug-soaked Mexico a man he characterized as soft on drugs. (Weld approves of medicinal marijuana.) Although a fiscal conservative, Weld is too liberal on things like abortion and gay rights to pass muster with Helms. And the Senator still harbors a grudge against Weld, a former...
...Weld's attempts earlier this summer to get a meeting with Helms, using Republican Senators as intermediaries, were all rebuffed. So the week before Weld was formally nominated he held an extraordinary press conference at which he challenged the White House not to "give in to ideological extortion." The White House hasn't. Just naming Weld is a gesture of Administration bipartisanship. And the fight over his nomination may touch off a gratifying round of G.O.P. fratricide in the Senate just when the civil war between pro- and anti-Gingrich forces is simmering down in the House. New bickering could...
...interview with TIME, Weld said he had heard that his challenge to Helms may have put the Senator's manhood at stake, but doesn't believe speaking out for yourself should be considered unforgivable effrontery. "If Senator Helms has questions about my drug policy, that's what God created hearings for. He shouldn't singlehandedly be able to stop them...
...down with a movie or two from Column B. The Senator Was Indiscreet, with 'Thin Man' William Powell, is a still-funny Washington lampoon from 1947, before we knew there was so much to satirize. Throw in star-studded Senate classic Advise and Consent for a briefer on the Weld mess. But if you're a campaign finance junkie, and you need a good Asian infiltration plot to get through the weekend, just go get The Manchurian Candidate. As a watchdog, committee chairman Fred Thompson has absolutely nothing on Chairman of the Board Frank Sinatra...