Mexico ambassador

Flake urges GOP to override Rubio and approve Mexico ambassador

By Burgess Everett

In an unusual plea to the leader of his own party, GOP Sen. Jeff Flake is urging Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to hold a vote this month to confirm President Barack Obama's pick to be the next ambassador to Mexico.

In asking the GOP leader to vote on the nomination of Roberta Jacobson, Flake (R-Ariz.) sets himself in direct opposition to presidential candidate Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who members of both parties say is stymieing quick confirmation of Jacobson because of her work on reestablishing relations with Cuba.

Flake said in an interview that ending the year without an ambassador in place is "unfathomable," a possibility that led him to write McConnell on Monday to urge him to force a vote over Rubio's objections. In the letter, Flake argued it's vitally important that the United States has a partner in Mexico on immigration, national security and trade, and a well-qualified ambassador is a key element for maintaining those partnerships.

Flake said he was unsure about McConnell's plans, but said there is "no reason to not take this up" other than "presidential politics" and Cuba.

"We need her in this post ... it's crunch time now. Once you get into the next year it's easier to just put them on hold" until the next president assumes office in 2017," Flake said. Former Ambassador Anthony Wayne retired in July.

Aides to Rubio and McConnell did not immediately comment. And Rubio's office has not confirmed that he has a procedural hold on Jacobson, though Democrats and Republicans say he's the main impediment to swift confirmation along with Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.). McConnell can move to prioritize her nomination, though such a maneuver could be seen as undercutting Rubio's actions to disrupt the Obama administration's foreign policy priorities.

On Monday, after a lengthy delay led by Rubio rival Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) on a new leader for the United States Agency for International Development, the Senate confirmed Gayle Smith after Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) negotiated with Cruz.

But senators who support Jacobson say a similar tactic will not work for this nomination and that it's all in McConnell's court.

"That’s going to have to take a vote on the floor, because there’s more than one” hold, said Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland, Corker's Democratic counterpart. "It’s part of [Rubio's] position on Cuba and this is a visible way he can show it. It’s wrong. Roberta Jacobson had nothing to do with this policy."