Posted on 01/10/2003 6:12:19 AM PST by Theodore R.
Anti-Castro Diplomat Gets Key White House Post
Otto Reich, the Cuban-born former head of the State Department's Latin American Affairs Office, has been named to a newly created White House post as a "presidential envoy" to the Americas. The administration feared he might not win Senate confirmation to his old job at State.
Long known as a vehement critic of Castro's communist regime in Cuba and of other leftist movements in Latin America, Reich was forced to step down from his temporary appointment as assistant secretary for Latin American affairs when that appointment expired last November.
As NewsMax.com reported, the Democrat-controlled Senate refused even to hold hearings on Reich's nomination, forcing President Bush to give the veteran anti-communist diplomat a temporary appointment, which ran out in November.
At the time, Reich's supporters expressed confidence that he would be renominated this month after the Senate reconvened under GOP control. But according to the Miami Herald, which described Reich as "a lightning rod for his conservative views," the administration chose to give him the new White House assignment rather than face a bitter confirmation battle in the Senate.
But such a battle may yet materialize because the administration is said to be planning to nominate Reich's former deputy, Roger Noriega, now serving as ambassador to the Organization of American States. Reich, once described by National Review as "a key resource in fighting hemispheric terrorism," and Noriega, a one-time Latin American affairs staffer for former Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., are considered hard-liners on Cuba and on several other Latin American issues, the Herald reported.
Reich, a former ambassador to Venezuela, had been effectively vetoed in the Senate by Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., and other Castro-friendly Democrats who oppose the U.S. embargo on Castro's Cuba. In his new White House appointment, Reich will report directly to National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, officials told the Herald. Backers of the embattled expert on Latin America, who had been hoping the president would renominate him to the State Department job nonetheless expressed satisfaction with the new appointment. "It's a victory of the hard-liners," one U.S. official told the Herald. Reich's supporters told the Herald he might play a powerful role in the administration's Latin American policies because he will work close to Rice, and thus have potentially easy access to the Oval Office.
LUGAR ALSO GAVE A PASS TO PATTY MURRAY ON HER OUTRAGEOUS COMMENTS, BUT HE WAS QUIET AS A MOUSE ABOUT TRENT LOTT!
As documented here there's trouble brewing south of the border with Chavez at the center of it. We need Reich to take a hardline on our behalf.
I heard Pete Domenici on Imus this AM. He says the mood of the senate is such that the RATS are in full obstructionist mode (I guess we already knew that) and they are determined to block anything and everything.
I'll admit that I am not upset to see this move. In fact, Otto Reich is FAR more dangerous to Castro and Chavez by having easy acess to Condi Rice in the White House than he is at the State Department. And they guy they have is his deputy.
No problems whatsoever with this. In fact, if Bush gives the word to cap Chavez - it will be done.
Sounds like something Bush '41 would do before his first cup of coffee.
I think Chavez needs to get the Ceauscescu treatment. That would be my first choice, but short of that, an unfortunate accident would be also be OK by me.
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