Weld confronts Helms' political clout

New York Times

BOSTON Responding to reports that President Clinton might bow to
political pressure and back off from nominating him as ambassador to
Mexico, Gov. William Weld on Tuesday challenged the White House to fight
to win him the Mexico job, and said he would accept no substitute.

Weld, a moderate Republican, also took on Sen. Jesse Helms, RN.C., who
is chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, in what he cast as a
battle for the soul of the Republican Party. Branding Weld as soft on
drugs which Weld denies Helms has vowed to kill the governor's
ambassadorial nomination by refusing to hold a committee hearing on it.

``I have read some news reports suggesting that the White House may be
backing down from nominating me for Mexico City because of Senator
Helms' opposition,'' Weld said at a news conference Tuesday at the
statehouse.

`Ideological extortion'

``I hope and expect that this rumor and speculation does not represent
the president's thinking,'' he said. ``I hope and expect that the
president does not plan to give in to ideological extortion. I hope
and expect that the president will join me in a fight worth fighting.
And if he does not, let the president himself say so.''

White House and congressional officials said Tuesday that Helms had
indicated he would not object if Weld was nominated for an
ambassadorship to a country in which internationaldrugtrade issues
would be less of a factor than in Mexico.

White House officials were starting to explore the possibility of
offering Weld another ambassador's post. One official said the president
had not yet signed off on a switch or approached Weld. But accounts that
he was going to do so have already seeped into the Boston Globe and
Boston Herald.

At the daily briefing Tuesday, Michael McCurry, the White House press
secretary, seemed to hedge on Weld's status. He said, ``The White House
continues to believe he will be an excellent ambassador to Mexico.'' But
when McCurry was asked whether Clinton thought Weld might make a good
ambassador to India, he said simply, ``The president thinks he would
make an excellent ambassador.''

When McCurry was told Tuesday night of Weld's challenge, he said: ``The
president continues to believe he would be a great U.S. ambassador to
Mexico.''

No formal nomination

While Weld announced in late April that the White House had nominated
him, President Clinton has never formally sent the nomination to the
Senate.

Weld, who is in the middle of his second term, has prided himself on not
being a conventional Republican. He has cast himself as socially liberal
and fiscally conservative, a stance that helped get him elected in
Massachusetts but is now hurting him with Helms.

Weld supports the legalization of marijuana for medicinal purposes, a
stand that has no doubt fueled Helms' charge that the governor is soft
on drugs.

At Tuesday's news conference, Weld said Helms' opposition had nothing to
do with drug policies. ``It has everything to do with the future of the
Republican Party,'' he said. ``In plain language, I am not Senator
Helms' kind of Repub lican.''

Published Wednesday, July 16, 1997, in the San Jose Mercury News