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Kwame Holman reports on the battle over the position of United States ambassador to Mexico.

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JIM LEHRER: That drama over the nomination of former Massachusetts Governor William Weld to be ambassador to Mexico. Kwame Holman tells the story.

KWAME HOLMAN: Ask most Americans and they would be hard pressed to name even one of the 56 persons who have held the position of United States ambassador to Mexico. The fact is in the long line of presidential nominations ambassador to Mexico traditionally has not ranked high on the public interest scale. But at the Dirksen Senate Office Building across the street from the capitol that certainly was not the case today. In a packed committee room and barely visible to the cameras former Massachusetts Governor William Weld and North Carolina Senator Jesse Helms shook hands. It appeared this summer's most titillating political drama was nearing a climax. The drama began to unfold in June, when word came from the White House that President Clinton would nominate Weld to be ambassador to Mexico. Almost immediately, Senator Helms made clear his strong opposition to Weld and vowed to use all of his authority as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to block Weld's confirmation. Helms insisted Weld wasn't qualified to be ambassador to Mexico; that his stand on drugs was not strong enough, citing, for example, Weld's support for the medical use of marijuana.

WILLIAM WELD, Nominee, Ambassador to Mexico: (July 28) Well, I've been nominated by the President to be ambassador to Mexico. That obviously changes the situation somewhat. It looks as though that's going to be a long fight.

KWAME HOLMAN: Gov. Weld resigned from office in late July to lobby full-time for the ambassadorship. And as late as yesterday continued to criticize Helms for refusing even to let his committee hold a hearing on the nomination.

WILLIAM WELD: (yesterday) I think the U.S. Constitution says that foreign policy is conducted by the President, with the advice and consent of the Senate. The Senate, last time I looked, had a hundred members. And the notion that a decision on a major ambassadorial nomination by the President should be made by one person, with no discussion, no open process, no transparency, no fair hearing, that is a very un-American notion.

KWAME HOLMAN: For his part, Senator Helms, having already stated his position, remained publicly quiet until today.

SEN. JESSE HELMS, Chairman, Foreign Relations Committee: The committee will come to order.

KWAME HOLMAN: He called a special meeting of the committee today only because he was forced to under rules exercised by several other Senators led by Indiana Republican Dick Lugar, who supports a Weld hearing.

SEN. JESSE HELMS: Rule 3 authorizes Sen. Lugar and his supporters to request a meeting, but Rule 3 does not provide that they can place any further restrictions on the agenda or the meeting or the procedures to be followed at the meeting.

KWAME HOLMAN: And with that, Sen. Helms was off, using the meeting as a personal forum to respond to the weeks of criticism he's received from fellow politicians and the press.

SEN. JESSE HELMS: I'll tell you, I've never seen such a barrage of mis-statements of fact or such a collection of idle speculation, mostly erroneous, but published as fact. For example, the suggestion by editors and reporters who saw no point in their going to the trouble of checking the facts produce the allegation that by declining to schedule a hearing on the Weld nomination it is unprecedented and that it is a rare departure from common Senate practice and procedure. Well, of course, anybody who knows anything about the Senate knows that nothing could be further from the truth, which I feel should present--be presented for the record in some detail. And I'll do that.

KWAME HOLMAN: Helms stopped talking only once, giving Sen. Joseph Biden, the top Democrat on the committee, a few minutes of his own. But all Biden could do was ask that the chairman reconsider his position.

SEN. JOSEPH BIDEN, (D) Delaware: Our job as a committee, I need not tell you, since you know the rules and procedure better than anybody, except possibly Bob Byrd, is to give the Senate our considered opinion. The Constitution says that the Senate will give its advice and consent, not a committee. And so I think we are denying our colleagues the opportunity of our judgment, them not being in a position to ever get a chance to exercise the constitutional responsibility called upon for them to exercise--

KWAME HOLMAN: Biden was the only other Senator Helms allowed to speak, although others tried.

SENATOR: Mr. Chairman--could I just ask you one question?

SEN. JESSE HELMS: No, sir. There have been, however, many contrived reports. The committee will be in order, please. You called this hearing, which is not a hearing; it's a meeting. Now, I insist that you exercise some decorum.

KWAME HOLMAN: And Helms continued.

SEN. JESSE HELMS: There's been many contrived reports to the effect that my decision and that there will be no hearing on the Weld nomination is somehow a radical departure from Senate procedures. Some have resorted to unfortunate name calling. For example, dictatorial. And I have been lectured regarding what the Constitution says about hearings. And it says nothing. And the traditions of the United States Senate and about democracy in general, Mr. Weld, himself, joined once again parade of mis-statements of fact last weekend when he appeared briefly on ABC's "This Week" program without the foggiest notion of what he was talking about. He declared "You would be very hard pressed if you looked back in the precedence of the United States Senate to find a case where a presidential nominee for ambassador was denied a hearing." Well, we'll see about that.

KWAME HOLMAN: Helms revealed he asked the congressional research service to prepare for him a list of every presidential nominee who over the last ten years also had been denied a confirmation hearing. The results were displayed for all to see.

SEN. JESSE HELMS: The keystone criteria a congressional research service reported to me that during the past 10 years alone there have been 154 failed nominees who never received a hearing, unprecedented--you make up your own mind about that.

KWAME HOLMAN: Helms cited specific nominations Sen. Biden blocked while he was chairman of the Judiciary Committee and a nomination blocked by Sen. Lugar on the Agriculture Committee. Lugar sat quietly but others wanted him to be allowed to talk.

SENATOR: Mr. Chairman, can Sen. Lugar respond to this?

SEN. JESSE HELMS: No. I will not--

SENATOR: Doesn't he have a right to be able to?

SEN. JESSE HELMS: The committee will be in order.

KWAME HOLMAN: And then Helms concluded.

SEN. JESSE HELMS: Let me simply say that while Mr. Weld was deciding whether to launch, as he put it, a ground war or an air war, Jesse Helms was working behind the scenes with the White House to see if an acceptable compromise might be possible. On August 1st, the first day of the congressional recess, I sent to the President that four-page letter that I've alluded to. I wrote it at my home in Rory. And that letter I explained my objections to Mr. Weld for the Mexico post, and I made an expanded offer to the President of the United States. That offer was that I would immediately, immediately convene hearings on the Weld nomination to any other country in the world that the President chose, provided, provided it was one where was drug trafficking is not the principal U.S. foreign policy interest. Now, what Mr. Weld appears to be threatening is that unless his nomination to Mexico is moved, he will begin a war within the Republican Party. Let him try. I have been tempted to say--but haven't--that I, Mr. Weld, do not yield to ideological extortion.

KWAME HOLMAN: With that, Helms abruptly adjourned the meeting. Weld got his chance to speak to reporters waiting in the hallway.

WILLIAM WELD: I think the spectacle in the hearing room was sad in a way. It seemed almost that the chairman was set on a course to prove that the United States Senate is a despotic institution. I don't believe that that's true for a minute.

REPORTER: Are you now prepared to ask that your nomination be withdrawn?

WILLIAM WELD: Well, you know, I tend to agree with Sen. Wellstone. I think people out there are on Main Street are not going to understand why one person should be able to make a decision to override a matter that by our Constitution is vested in the President and all 100 members of the United States Senate. That's where the appeal lies at this point, I think.

KWAME HOLMAN: And Senators Biden and Lugar stepped in to say Weld's chances do not rest solely with Jesse Helms.

SEN. JOSEPH BIDEN: And the second route is getting the entire United States Senate--getting over 50 members of the Senate to say we want that nomination discharged. That is real easy. All the majority leader has to do is say, bingo. There's no requirement there be a hearing held in order for someone to be considered. I shouldn't be so blunt, but I'm going to do it anyway. Who do you think would more likely yield to national pressure, Helms or Lott? What do yo think?

SEN. DICK LUGAR, (R) Indiana: I think this now does become a conversation between Sen. Lott and President Clinton. This is above our pay grade. But those two individuals--one who made the nomination, the other who has the ability to bring about advise and consent, hopefully, will visit.

KWAME HOLMAN: At the White House President Clinton, well aware of what had just transpired on Capitol Hill, chose his words carefully.

PRESIDENT CLINTON: Well, I certainly intend to talk to Sen. Lott about it, although I would hope that Sen. Lugar would do the same thing and the other Republicans who want the fair and decent thing done. My position is that this man should have a hearing.

REPORTER: What do you make of Sen. Helms' implied threat that this could have fallout in your relationship with him on other foreign policy matters?

PRESIDENT CLINTON: Oh, I don't think it was implied. I thought it was explicit. See, I like that about Sen. Helms. He always tells you where he is and what he's doing. This is just a--you know, we've had a very cordial relationship, partly because we've been very candid and honest with each other. And this is just an area where we have a disagreement.

KWAME HOLMAN: In the meantime the Weld nomination remains in limbo, but if Weld ever is confirmed, he's likely to be the most widely known ambassador to Mexico since the very first one, Andrew Jackson.

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