Here's a little something to cheer you up. Che after the Bolivians whacked him. Happy New Year.
Here's a little something to cheer you up. Che after the Bolivians whacked him. Happy New Year.
Gomez/Rodriguez is shown in the photo section with G.H.W. Bush.
Otto Reich would help matters. Chris Dodd's vaginitis may keep her from opposing Reich this month:
Monday, Nov. 25, 2002
Otto Reich Loses State Department Post
Otto Reich, the anti-communist State department official and pet target of congressional Democrats and other leftists, has lost his temporary post as assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs.
Under the rules governing recess appointments, Reich’s term ran out with the close of Congress.
The failure to re-appoint Reich is a major disappointment to conservatives, who have worried the Bush administration has paid little attention to growing problems in Latin America.
''In light of this, the secretary of state asked Ambassador Reich to be his special envoy to the Western Hemisphere. In that capacity, he will report to the secretary and continue to advance U.S. interests throughout the region,'' announced Robert Zimmerman, a department spokesman.
Reich, described by the Miami Herald as "a lightning rod for his conservative views" and by National Review as "a key resource in fighting hemispheric terrorism," received the temporary job in January when he was unable to win a Senate confirmation after the Democrat-controlled chamber blocked a hearing on his nomination. Left-wing Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., led the opposition, calling Reich an ideologue unfit for the job.
Reich, however, had the support of Secretary of State Colin Powell at the time. Powell told senators then, "I need Otto Reich in place."
Unmoved, Dodd snapped: "That nomination's not going anywhere. That's the end of it."
President Bush then gave him a recess appointment, which did not require Senate approval.
The drumbeat of criticism from Democrats and other leftists increased in April when Reich allegedly appeared to back the short-lived coup that ousted Castro crony Hugo Chavez, Venezuela’s far-left president, who has also embraced Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
According to the Herald, neither the White House nor the State Department could say whether the administration would renominate Reich to be assistant secretary of state once a new session of Congress convenes in January. Reich's friends and supporters say they have received private assurances he would be reappointed, and Republicans now control the Senate.
Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, a Miami Republican, affirmed this and said he had been told that the White House would give a strong push to Reich. ``They are behind him. They support us on this,'' he told the Herald.
Reich, a no-nonsense Cuban-born diplomat, raised liberal hackles in late September when he criticized Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura for going to an agricultural trade show in Havana, and publicly warned him not to engage in ''sexual tourism'' while in Cuba.
The Herald reports that remarks of that nature drove a wedge between Reich and Powell, who is reported to prefer having a less outspoken career diplomat in the Latin America post. Powell is also well known in Washington circles to be seeking an accommodation strategy with Castro, a concept disdainful to many conservatives.
State Department spokesman Zimmerman dismissed reports of friction between Reich and Powell.
''Ambassador Reich's performance as assistant secretary has been exemplary. He is a consummate diplomat and has the complete confidence of the president, of Secretary Powell and the department's senior leadership,'' Zimmerman told the Miami newspaper.
Leftists were quick to voice their opposition to the anti-communist champion of Cuban exiles. Said a spokesman for Dodd: ''Mr. Reich is still the wrong man for the job, and Sen. Dodd continues to oppose his appointment. We would hope the president would select a nominee with bipartisan support, which clearly Mr. Reich doesn't have.''
''The biggest problem is he's an incredibly divisive figure, and you simply are not going to be able to get a bipartisan policy to Latin America with Otto Reich as assistant secretary,'' William Goodfellow, executive director of Center for International Policy, a liberal research institute in Washington, told the Herald.
Among liberals the word "divisive" means conservative, anti-communist and anti-terrorist. "Bipartisan" foreign policy is sought only when Republicans win elections.
No replacement was named immediately, but sources told the Herald that Reich's principal deputy, J. Curtis Struble, a career Foreign Service officer, would fill the job in the interim.
The Max Gomez/Felix Rodriguez Doctrine (One Commie, One Bullet) would give Latin America an opportunity for prosperity, freedom and hope.