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.
Transcript of House Western Hemipshere Subcommittee Hearing, October 10, 2001***(J. Curtis Struble, Deputy Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, U.S. Department of State)…………….. Further south, in what is known as the tri-border area, where Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay converge, we see the longstanding presence of Islamic extremist organizations, primarily Hizballah and, to a lesser extent, the Sunni extremists group of al Gamaat, IG, and Hamas. These organizations are involved in fundraising activities and proselytizing among the large expatriate population from the Middle East that lives in the tri-border area and also on Venezuela's Margarita Island. These organizations engage in document forgery, money laundering, contraband smuggling, and weapons and drug trafficking. Hizballah is the prime suspect behind the 1992 bombing of the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires and the 1994 bombing of the Argentine Israel Mutual Association community center. These attacks were characterized by the same faceless cowardice that we saw on September 11, and they remain unsolved to this day, although I am pleased that the trial in the 1994 bombing is now underway in Buenos Aires. We hope the perpetrators will at last be brought to justice.
……………..In the tri-border area of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay, Middle East terrorist organizations such as Hamas and Hizballah train terrorists and conduct fundraising activities in an area which has a growing population of Middle Eastern and South Asian immigrants. Funds raised in the tri-border area are sent directly to the Middle East to support the operation of these organization, possibly even the planning and execution of terrorist acts. I have no doubt that funds raised in the tri-border area have made it to the pockets of Al Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden. Afghanistan produces 75 percent of the world's heroin. The Taliban reaps tremendous profits from such trade and use them to sponsor Osama Bin Laden and other terrorists. As Americans, we must recognize that fighting the war on drugs is tantamount to fighting the war on terrorism. Every time an American boy buys cocaine or heroin, they are directly funding the terrorists who are responsible for the deaths of over 6,000 innocent Americans.
Today, the Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere will hear from a distinguished panel of official witnesses who will provide us with important testimony about the type of terrorist organizations operating in our hemisphere, the links between international terror and drug trafficking, and the efforts of the OAS and its member states to help our nation win the war on terrorism. While I have no doubt that these panelists will provide the Subcommittee with excellent testimony, I am profoundly troubled that Otto Reich has yet to be confirmed as the Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs. At this time, the President needs to have his nominee confirmed and in place to fight both drug trafficking and terrorism in Latin America.
……………..Mr. STRUBLE. There are large expatriate populations in a number of areas in Latin America. The tri-border region has been mentioned before. There is also Santa Margarita Island in Venezuela, the Colon Free Trade Zone in Panama, and then a number of others throughout the hemisphere. We are quite concerned about the possibility or in some instances the certainty of financial transactions from these areas supporting terrorist groups in the Middle East. Mr. Mack alluded before to the efforts of INL over a number of years to give countries the tools, help them develop the tools, and work multilaterally in this hemisphere to control money laundering through more effective sharing of financial transaction information.****