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2001 : (OTTO REICH IS BUSH'S NOMINEE TO BE ASST SEC OF STATE FOR WESTERN HEMISPHERE AFFAIRS BUT SENATOR DODD MOVES TO BLOCK HIS NOMINATION WITH RUMORS WHILE JANICE O'CONNELL TRIES TO MAKE IT A HARDSHIP FOR REICH TO ACCEPT THE NOMINATION BY TARGETTING HIS PERSONAL INCOME- See CHRIS DODD, JANICE O'CONNELL) Mr. [Otto] Reich originally had been George Bush's nominee to be Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs in 2001. He had the votes to be confirmed. But Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd and his first lieutenant on the Senate foreign relations committee, Janice O'Connell, blamed Cold-War warrior Reich for the defeat of the Nicaraguan Sandinistas in the late 1980s and were determined to block his nomination.
Vicious mud slinging ensued. At least one sloppy, lazy "journalist" spread rumors that Mr. Reich had ties to a Cuban terrorist. Mr. Dodd also whispered to Senate colleagues that the nominee was going through a hostile divorce and hiding assets from his wife. None of the charges stuck for the simple reason that they lacked merit.
Finally, Mr. Reich reports that Ms. O'Connell told another Hill staffer that she had a plan to make it financially impossible for him to take a government job by raising questions about the sale of his private consulting business. Under the terms of the deal, Mr. Reich was scheduled to receive payments over four years, something State Department lawyers told him was completely legal and ethical. But Mr. Reich tore up the contract anyway. Out of mud, Mr. Dodd simply refused to allow the confirmation hearings to proceed.
-------May 18, 2004 via 61 posted on 05/06/2005 7:18:47 PM PDT by kcvl

Janice O'Connell, longtime foreign relations aide to Democratic Sen. Christopher Dodd (who is launching a campaign for better U.S. relations with Castro). Such disparate anti-Reich sources as Castro, Arias and O'Connell share a common animosity. They cannot forgive Reich for his persistent Reagan administration role in keeping the contras alive, assuring the ultimate fall of Nicaragua's Marxist dictatorship. Arias specifically bemoans Reich's ''allegiance to the Reagan administration's hard-line policies toward Central America.''
The assault by the Cuban Communists is particularly noxious in its fascist and Nazi name-calling. Reich's father, an Austrian Jew, fled Hitler's Anschluss in 1938 for Cuba, where Otto was born. His grandparents died in the Holocaust.
Arias was just as far off the mark. He said that Reich successfully lobbied the Clinton administration on behalf of Lockheed Martin to permit the sale of F-16 warplanes to Chile; in fact, Reich did not go to work for the company until after the ban on high grade weaponry had been lifted. Contrary to Arias, Reich never was even accused of wrongdoing in supporting the contras under Reagan.
The settling of old scores on Nicaragua also has targeted John Negroponte, Bush's nominee as ambassador to the United Nations. While an active Contra supporter as ambassador to Honduras in the '80s, Negroponte is a less inviting target than [Otto] Reich.
One influential conservative Republican senator thinks [Otto] Reich may be the sacrificial lamb to appease Senate Democrats. He notes that Secretary of State Colin Powell, on Fox News June 17, lavishly praised Negroponte but said nothing about Reich. The explanation may be that Powell was asked about Negroponte but not Reich. A recent meeting between White House aides and Senate GOP staffers agreed there should be a vigorous effort on Reich's behalf. Veteran Republican operative Tom Korologos was asked last week to add Reich to the pack of Bush nominees he is shepherding. George W. Bush may be underestimated again, this time by his own conservative base. Naming Reich to head Latin American policy was an act of solidarity with Reaganism. That Castro targeted Reich validates the choice.
-------http://tinyurl.com/aox2c