Congressional Tantrums

The State Department is a frequent punching bag for congressional grandstanders who want to punish the Administration without offending their constituents. Once way to do this is to hold up ambassadorial nominations for little or no reason. Viz:

Mexican Post Held Hostage Over Cuba

Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio and fellow Sen. Robert Menendez, both angry over the Obama administration’s diplomatic opening to Cuba, are now targeting America’s ties to a far more important neighbor: Mexico. 

At issue is who, if anyone, will serve as the next U.S. ambassador in Mexico City during the final year of Barack Obama’s presidency. 

In June, the administration nominated Roberta Jacobson, the State Department’s assistant secretary for Western Hemisphere affairs, who helped lead the negotiations that re-established U.S. diplomatic ties to Cuba. But her confirmation has been held up in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, with the vote postponed earlier this month. 

The committee is expected to vote in favor of Jacobson during its next business meeting, but the nomination is then likely to languish indefinitely on the Senate floor unless Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) deems it a priority. 

The holdup, sources familiar with the committee said, centers directly on Jacobson’s work on Cuba.

So one of our immediate neighbors and biggest trading partners goes without an ambassadors because some people want to brush up on their anti-Cuban bona fides. Well, if that's not statesmanship I don't know what is.