DATE: Friday, August 1, 1997                TAG: 9708010042

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B10  EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Editorial 

                                            LENGTH:   51 lines

THE WELD-HELMS FACE-OFF BILL QUIXOTE

Former Massachusetts Gov. William Weld may have done a noble thing - not to mention, boosted his presidential hopes - by quitting his job to fight for an ambassadorship to Mexico. But he's just as likely to have left a lot of Americans scratching their heads.

An ambassadorship anywhere isn't the equivalent of the top elected office in one of the nation's busiest states. And even with just 18 months left in his second term, Weld looks a bit dillettantish to let so personal a pursuit cut short his obligation to the voters.

Weld apparently thinks that's a risk worth taking for a couple of reasons. One may be political. His resignation gives his GOP successor a head start in a possible gubernatorial race against U.S. Rep. Joe Kennedy next year.

Foremost, however, is the chance to highlight his differences with North Carolina Sen. Jesse Helms, who has pronounced Weld's ambassadorship hopes as good as dead.

As chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations, Helms can quash a nomination simply by refusing to hold hearings. This he's done for Weld, arguing that the would-be ambassador is too soft on drugs. Weld favors allowing the medical use of marijuana and needle exchanges for drug addicts.

But Weld believes the real sticking point is his support of abortion and homosexual rights - both anathema to Helms. Weld has portrayed his willingness to challenge Helms as part of the ongoing fight for the soul of the Republican Party.

If Weld seeks to be his party's presidential candidate in 2000, as many believe, he's either got to beat the Helms wing of the party, which holds the key to the nomination, or bow to it. Obviously, Weld has decided he won't bow.

The recently departed governor, who is exceedingly popular in his home state, is correct that the Republican Party cannot stake its future on the far-right rhetoric and philosophy of a Jesse Helms. But those who would reposition the party in the American mainstream must pick their fights carefully.

It does Weld and other moderates little good if they engage in battles that only highlight their own impotence or appear trivial to the man in the street. Americans warm to men of principle, but the principle must be understandable and seem worth fighting for. William Weld's appointment as ambassador to Mexico is unlikely to strike many Americans as that sort of national imperative.

On the other side of the battle line, Helms looks like a petty despot. Presidents have traditionally been granted their choices for ambassadorial posts unless they were a lot less qualified than Weld. Thus the Republicans appear to have mired themselves in yet another civil war where neither faction looks good.

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