Hearing Bill Weld

The sight of former Speaker of the House Thomas Foley checking his baggage through the Senate on his way to an ambassadorship in Japan while William Weld remains on standby gives a sense of the perverse priorities in Washington. It is one more reason that the former Massachusetts governor deserves a hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Speaker Foley oversaw and seemed incapacitated by the House Post Office scandal shortly before he was ushered from office by voters angry about his suit against term limits. The General Accounting Office’s report of leadership’s activities for the two years leading up to the House scandal was scathing. Yet there is Mr. Foley, scheduled to be welcomed back to Congress with 18 other nominations for ambassadorships.

Mr. Weld should be so lucky. Once he saw his nomination sinking faster than the Massachusetts Miracle of the 1980s and realized the Clinton administration had forgotten about him, he took to campaigning for himself. He stated the obvious: that Sen. Jesse Helms was blocking his nomination because the two men disagreed on the direction of the Republican Party. Anywhere else, this would have been seen as candor. In Washington, it was a blunder of catastrophic proportions.

Supporters of Mr. Weld and common sense have been trying to fix things since the beginning of the August recess. No luck, even with the recent aggressive help of Sen. Richard Lugar, who ranks second on the committee. There is talk this week about allowing the senator to save face by recommending Mr. Weld not for Mexico but India, another important post that needs to be filled. But if this is a question of process, changing the address from Mexico City to New Delhi does not solve much.

The Clinton administration has profitted by its own disregard for its nominee; infighting among the opposition usually makes a president look good. But a man who deserves a hearing has been left to thrash around Congress on his own, while an old-time insider like Mr. Foley — who, for his gay-rights stands alone, should infuriate Sen. Helms — gets a hearing without an argument from the Senate chairman.

The former speaker has been treated correctly. His record of service should be the subject of his hearing, and senators can then decide whether he deserves support. Mr. Weld, who has committed the sin of speaking plainly, deserves the same opportunity.