Senate GOPers successfully filibustered the confirmation of an ambassadorial nominee, because she penned a pro-LGBT editorial that was published in the Spanish-language Salvadoran newspaper, La Prensa Grafica, according to the Washington Blade.
The Obama administration sought confirmation of Mari Carmen Aponte as U.S. ambassador to El Salvador, but failed to secure her appointment after a 49-37 vote cloture vote prevented her advancement (a two thirds majority is required for cloture).
Aponte has already been serving in her post as U.S. ambassador to El Salvador via a recess appointment. However, she will cease to serve in that capacity under statute unless she is confirmed by Jan. 3, 2012. In order for that to happen, the issue has to make it to the Senate floor for a vote. That requires cloture.
Opposition stemmed from a pro-LGBT piece Aponte wrote in support of LGBT groups in El Salvador. Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) told fellow Senators that Aponte’s editorial, “For the Elimination of Prejudices Wherever They Exist,” is a reason to prevent her from receiving the nomination.
“In her recess-appointed capacity as ambassador to El Salvador, Ms. Aponte has inflamed tensions in the very country where she should be improving diplomatic relations,” DeMint said. “Her decision to publish an opinion piece hostile to the culture of El Salvadorans presents even more doubts about her fitness for the job. This op-ed upset a large number of community and pro-life groups in El Salvador who were insulted by Ms. Aponte’s rhetoric.”
The pro-LGBT piece was written June 28 and published in the Spanish newspaper La Prensa Grafica urging the State Department of Foreign Services to recognize June as the month of Pride.
“No one should be subjected to aggression because of who he is or who he loves,” Aponte wrote, according to the Associated Press. “Homophobia and brutal hostility are often based on lack of understanding about what it truly means to be gay or transgender.”
Aponte added: “To avoid negative perceptions, we must work together with education and support for those facing those who promote hatred.”
Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) spoke in favor of the editorial and compared it to a May 2010 decree by Salvadoran President Funes which prohibited the government to employ discrimination based on sexual orientation. Menendez rebuffed Republicans naysayers, adding that Aponte is “a qualified, talented Latina” and that her opinion piece was a reiteration of the country’s existing policies.
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Scott Brown (R-Mass.) were the only two Republican Senate seats who joined Democrats in support of nominating Aponte to U.S. Ambassador.
“Today’s filibuster is one more example of the type of political posturing and partisanship the American people are tired of seeing in Washington,” said White House Press Secretary Jay Carney. “Now is not the time for playing politics, it’s time for Congress to do the right thing for the American people.”
In addition to the LGBT editorial, Republicans also raised issues on Aponte’s character and record.
“For nearly a year and a half, Republicans have been continually denied access to Ms. Aponte’s full FBI record and other information, as the Obama administration has rebuffed our requests related to Ms. Aponte’s past,” DeMint said.
Menendez dismissed the questioning against Aponte. “Pursuant to precedent, one Democrat and one Republican reviewed that file,” he said. “I was the Democrat. There was nothing in the file to substantiate the concerns raised by my colleagues.”
As to whether or not the confirmation vote for Aponte’s nomination would progress, an anonymous Senate aid replied, “I don’t see where this is going anywhere.”
This is appalling. Who is a Southern bigot like DeMint to presume he understands and speaks for Salvadorean culture? He’s one of the worst of the worst of America’s professional haters, a throwback to Antebellum prejudices who is increasingly out of place in the modern world. Does he have some evidence of Ambassador Aponte “inflam[ing] tensions”? Of course not. To cynical politicians like him, the accusation is all the proof he needs.
Note also that 14 U.S. Senators were too cowardly to come down on either side of this issue.
Note further that this is just one of hundreds of instances in which the Republican minority has systematically abused the filibuster, once a rare device reserved for desperate issues, to obstruct governance since Barack Obama was elected and his party nominally controlled Congress. It is a tool for tyranny of the majority.
Finally, for the record, cloture requires 60 Senate votes, not two-thirds.