On Nominations, Good News, Bad News and a Blame Game

But the party's over on Monday as the lawmakers meet with some Brazilian officials. Dinner is a Brazilian barbecue.

On Tuesday, there's another obligatory trip, this time to Foz do Iguacu, to see the beautiful Iguazu Falls.

Our intrepid delegation, tired but undaunted, is set to head off Wednesday and Thursday to Salvador, the wonderful colonial-era city with those gorgeous beaches and great seafood.

Unclear when the group returns. (It's a big country, after all.) Fortunately, as far as we could tell, there's no stop at the capital, Brasilia, or the major banking and industrial cities such as Sao Paolo and Belo Horizonte. Repeated efforts to reach Pastor to discuss the trip were unsuccessful.

On the other hand, our schedule inexplicably doesn't seem to include a riverboat trip up the Amazon to the Anavilhanas Ecological Station and then an overnight stay at the stunning Ariau Amazon Towers Hotel, built in the treetops. Well, there's time still to add it.

OUR MAN IN MEXICO?

Speaking of diplomacy down south, word in Mexico City is that President Obama has picked Carlos Pascual, a well-regarded career diplomat, to be ambassador to Mexico and has asked the Mexican government to receive the nomination.

The headline in major newspaper El Universal, which apparently broke the story on Thursday during Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's visit there, said: "United States proposes a Cuban as ambassador." The story said Pascual, who came to this country with his parents, was the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, served on the National Security Council during the Clinton administration, and was an expert on peacekeeping efforts and working with countries involved in civil disorder. (Some of those countries are called failed states -- a term not to be used in referring to Mexico.) He's now a vice president and director at the Brookings Institution.

Clinton folks declined to confirm or deny the report, telling reporters, including our colleague Mary Beth Sheridan, that it was the White House's announcement to make.