The Nation - News from Aug. 12, 1988

Senate Republican leader Bob Dole, discarding normal Senate courtesies, ignored another GOP senator’s long-standing objections and permitted confirmation of a backlog of 45 presidential nominees. The action filled diplomatic vacancies, many of them months old, at U.S. embassies in nations around the world, including El Salvador, Lebanon, Syria, Bolivia and Colombia. Dole said the Senate logjam had been caused by Sen. Gordon J. Humphrey (R-N.H.), who had used Senate tradition to place a “hold” on President Reagan’s nomination of veteran Foreign Service officer Christopher W. S. Ross to be the new U.S. ambassador to Algeria. Humphrey apparently had no objections to Ross personally but was using his Senate privileges to gain leverage on an unrelated issue.