Foreign Relations Committee

IN A FIT of pique extreme and bizarre even by his standards, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jesse Helms, R-N.C., has shut down his committee. Senator Helms says he did it because the president and secretary of state "are playing hard ball and dirty pool at the same time, and I'm not going to cave in." He means they don't want to reorganize the State Department his way.In fact, the senator is the one who is playing hard ball and dirty pool, and the Senate should be ashamed of itself for letting him get away with it. At the moment several important treaties and some 30 ambassadorial nominations await the Senate's advice and consent.

Washington -- Prominent Democratic senators who are against the troop buildup in Iraq took issue yesterday with criticism from Bush administration officials who contend that opposition to the president's new strategy will embolden the enemy. "It's not the American people or the United States Congress who are emboldening the enemy," said Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. "It's the failed policy of this president - going to war without a strategy, going to war prematurely."

Bolton will step down With his nomination stalled in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee because of opposi tion from Democrats and some Republicans, U.N. Ambassador John R. Bolton says he will re sign. Pg 1B

Next week, the Senate will most likely take up some version of a resolution opposing the deployment of about 20,000 additional U.S. troops in Iraq - either the one approved Wednesday by the Foreign Relations Committee or a substantially similar measure drawn up by Virginia Republican John W. Warner. The vote is almost certain to go against the Bush administration, and the White House is trying to salvage what it can by trying to portray the resolution as a partisan "Democrat" potshot. So the spotlight falls on those Republicans who are sensible enough to acknowledge that this is not the time to escalate the war. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska is in the forefront; he was the one Republican who voted with the Democrats on the Foreign Relations Committee proposal, angrily declaring that the time has come for every senator to take a stand.

WASHINGTON -- After two months of trying to force the Clinton administration to revamp its foreign policy bureaucracy, Sen. Jesse Helms has dug in, vowing to continue to hold up all ambassadorial appointments until he is taken more seriously.The North Carolina Republican has halted business meetings of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, frozen 400 State Department promotions and blocked more than a dozen treaties and other international agreements, including the second Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty and the Chemical Weapons Convention, so they cannot be voted on by the full Senate.

The pre-eminent distinguishing characteristic of J.W. Fulbright's career in the Senate was independence -- from presidents, members of the cabinet, fellow senators, the media, even on occasion, his constituents. These are the people whom most senators try to cultivate. Mr. Fulbright was not disdainful of his relations with them, but he never (well, almost never) let those relations get in the way of speaking out for what he believed in, or of criticizing what struck him as mistaken.While still a freshman senator, Mr. Fulbright provoked President Harry Truman by suggesting that Truman resign after the Republicans won the 1946 congressional elections.

WASHINGTON -- A State Department official who wa demoted for his role in the search of President-elect Bill Clinton's passport files during last year's presidential campaign has been hired by Senate Republicans to monitor the activities of the State Department under the new president.The official, Steven K. Berry, was acting assistant secretary of state for legislative affairs at the time of the search. On Wednesday, he will go to work for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Mr. Berry was hired by Sen. Jesse Helms of North Carolina, the ranking Republican on the committee.

Next week, the Senate will most likely take up some version of a resolution opposing the deployment of about 20,000 additional U.S. troops in Iraq - either the one approved Wednesday by the Foreign Relations Committee or a substantially similar measure drawn up by Virginia Republican John W. Warner. The vote is almost certain to go against the Bush administration, and the White House is trying to salvage what it can by trying to portray the resolution as a partisan "Democrat" potshot. So the spotlight falls on those Republicans who are sensible enough to acknowledge that this is not the time to escalate the war. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska is in the forefront; he was the one Republican who voted with the Democrats on the Foreign Relations Committee proposal, angrily declaring that the time has come for every senator to take a stand.

The U.S. government is closer to Sudan than it is to the United Kingdom as far as its international recognition of women's rights - at least according to the United Nations. For 23 years, the United States has not ratified a U.N. treaty that seeks to establish protection for women's rights and to promote gender equality. In not signing the treaty, the United States joins the ranks of Sudan, Afghanistan, Egypt and Iraq. More than 169 nations, including Saudi Arabia and Iran, have approved the Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination.

IF THIS NATION is to have an effective foreign policy and if the Republican Party is to keep faith with its own traditions, the system has to work. When Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jesse Helms denies a hearing, preventing other Republicans from approving or rejecting Republican Gov. William Weld as ambassador to Mexico, it is not working. The country's influence on Mexico is hobbled and the Republican Party repudiates its own internationalist vision.Sen. Richard G. Lugar of Indiana deserves support for trying to make the system work.

Bolton will step down With his nomination stalled in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee because of opposi tion from Democrats and some Republicans, U.N. Ambassador John R. Bolton says he will re sign. Pg 1B

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, John R. Bolton, launched a second campaign to win congressional approval yesterday, insisting that he had done his best "to work with others to advance our national interests." "Important advances have been made," said Bolton during a 3 1/2 -hour hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Bolton failed to win Senate confirmation to the U.N. post last year. During the divisive debate, critics cast Bolton as a smart but ill-tempered and inflexible ideologue who screamed at subordinates and was incapable of compomise.

WASHINGTON - A moderate Republican senator has written to all 99 of his colleagues to urge that they reject the nomination of John R. Bolton to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. "I strongly feel that the importance of this nomination to our foreign policy requires us to set aside our partisan agenda and let our consciences and our shared commitment to our nation's best interests guide us," wrote Sen. George V. Voinovich of Ohio. Nevertheless, Bolton's eventual confirmation appeared likely.

WASHINGTON - In the swirling debate over Iraq, the Bush administration and most of its critics agree on one point: American forces can begin withdrawing in significant numbers only when Iraqis are able to handle the job of fighting the insurgency, protecting the country's borders, and patrolling its key facilities and city streets. But there is wide disagreement about how many Iraqis are trained for such tasks. The Pentagon says about 130,000 Iraqis - from soldiers and police to border enforcement troops and sailors - are "on hand and trained," up from 126,961 two weeks ago. Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware, senior Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, puts the number of adequately trained Iraqi forces at 14,000; Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat, suggests it is closer to 40,000.

The U.S. government is closer to Sudan than it is to the United Kingdom as far as its international recognition of women's rights - at least according to the United Nations. For 23 years, the United States has not ratified a U.N. treaty that seeks to establish protection for women's rights and to promote gender equality. In not signing the treaty, the United States joins the ranks of Sudan, Afghanistan, Egypt and Iraq. More than 169 nations, including Saudi Arabia and Iran, have approved the Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination.

"I can't tell you how honored I am, as a country boy, to be sitting here, saying hello and best wishes," Sen. Jesse Helms purred as he recently greeted 15 U.N. Security Council ambassadors in the ornate Old Senate Chamber. This aw-shucks Southern charm didn't keep the visitors from grousing about the $1.5 billion in back dues that Washington allegedly owes the U.N. Nor could Helms' honey-coated talk mask the sharp fall in status of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee over which he presides.

WASHINGTON - A moderate Republican senator has written to all 99 of his colleagues to urge that they reject the nomination of John R. Bolton to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. "I strongly feel that the importance of this nomination to our foreign policy requires us to set aside our partisan agenda and let our consciences and our shared commitment to our nation's best interests guide us," wrote Sen. George V. Voinovich of Ohio. Nevertheless, Bolton's eventual confirmation appeared likely.

Sen. Jesse Helms of North Carolina has demonstrated in the two weeks since Republicans gained control of the Senate that he is not up to being chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee.He crudely threatened President Clinton in a letter saying "the administration" would not get "full and fair" treatment before his committee if it did not postpone Senate action on a world trade agreement. That is not the position of the Republican Party in Congress.Then Mr. Helms recklessly said on national television that he did not believe President Clinton is "up to" the job of commander in chief and implied that members of the joint chiefs of staff had said as much to him. Sen. Bob Dole, the majority-leader-to-be, and other Republican senators criticized the remark; Gen. John Shalikashvili, chairman of the joint chiefs, denied it was true.

IF THIS NATION is to have an effective foreign policy and if the Republican Party is to keep faith with its own traditions, the system has to work. When Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jesse Helms denies a hearing, preventing other Republicans from approving or rejecting Republican Gov. William Weld as ambassador to Mexico, it is not working. The country's influence on Mexico is hobbled and the Republican Party repudiates its own internationalist vision.Sen. Richard G. Lugar of Indiana deserves support for trying to make the system work.

THE CLINTON administration has assembled a team to dislodge the greatest obstruction to U.S. foreign-policy objectives, which is not Russia or China but the isolationist impulse governing Congress during its Republican ascendancy.This obstacle is personified by Sen. Jesse Helms, the reactionary Tar Heel who governs the Foreign Relations Committee as his personal microstate.Under his influence, the U.S. has refused to pay past United Nations dues; not ratified arms-control agreements; under-funded foreign policy; hobbled its ability to use aid as a tool of either U.S. national interest or Third World growth, and pretended to legislate for foreign countries.