Senate Republicans have been obstructing the confirmation of President Obama’s appointees to an “unprecedented” degree, taking longer to process his nominees than those of the three previous administrations, often for dubious reasons. Now, Republicans are “determined to block” Obama’s pick for the ambassador to El Salvador, Mari Carmen Aponte, “because of questions about a long-ago boyfriend,” who was baselessly accused of trying to recruit Aponte to spy for Cuba. She had dated the Cuban-American businessman from 1982 to 1994 and “attended some social functions with Cuban diplomats” with him, but the FBI gave Aponte “a clean bill of health” when President Clinton nominated her to a position in 1998, and she has received top security clearance twice since her relationship ended. The Senate Foreign Relations committee approved her nomination late last month, and Cuban-American Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) — who has been a “strong supporter of anti-Castro legislation” — “strongly defended Aponte” during the committee vote:

But Menendez came to Aponte’s defense at the business meeting and said, “If I thought that after having reviewed the file that Miss Aponte would be a security risk to the United States in any context, but particularly in the context of the Castro regime having access to her, I would oppose her. But that is simply not the case.” [...]

Chairman John Kerry, D-MA, noted that she has received top-secret security clearance twice since the alleged affair. Not having an ambassador in El Salvador hurts American interests, he added.

“After an exhaustive investigative process, with the entire U.S. intelligence community looking at this twice since these allegations appeared about her former boyfriend, she has been given top-secret clearance,” Kerry said. “Either our intelligence community is completely incompetent in looking at these things, or we have to trust them.”

Citing congressional staffers, the Miami Herald reports that “Republicans will put a hold on her nomination when it comes up in the full Senate, meaning it will need 60 votes for confirmation.” Opposition to Aponte’s confirmation has been led by Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC), who has also blocked at least two other would-be ambassadors to Latin America, and spearheaded a misguided attempt to intervene in Honduras’ political system after a disputed election there last year.

Last week, when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) attempted to end debate on the $410 billion 2009 omnibus appropriations bill, he came “one vote short.” Tonight, he’ll try again. While several Republicans whom Reid had expected to side with him had defected, one vote against senator’s lack of support for ending debate was surprising: Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ).

Menendez voted signaled his intention to vote against ending debate “in protest of a little-noticed Cuba provision that would ease U.S. rules on travel and imports to the communist-led island.” While Menendez claimed that including the Cuba provision in the omnibus was controversial, a majority of even Cuban Americans in Florida now support easing the embargo on Cuba. The effect of Menendez’s vote to keep debate open on the bill has been to increase the amount of time that Republicans have had to try to water down the legislation and delay work on other critical legislation. Still, Reid is likely to pass the legislation today with the Cuba provision intact.

In casting his protest vote, Menendez joined the ranks of a growing number of moderate Democrats who are withholding critical support for legislation in an attempt to force their Democratic colleagues into making narrow and often unpopular changes to important pieces of legislation. Other members include:

– Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND): Opposed to “stopping direct payments to farms with annual sales of more than $500,000″ despite the fact that ending such payments are projected to save “$10 billion over 10 years” and the program — which began in 1996 — was originally “dubbed ‘transitional’ and [was] supposed to decline over seven years.”

– Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE): Along with Menendez, Nelson opposed the Cuba provision in the omnibus. He also opposes the Employee Free Choice Act. Additionally, Nelson opposes a provision in Obama’s 2010 budget proposal that would overhaul the federal student aid program to ensure that Pell grants increase each year to keep pace with college tuition increases. Nelson opposes the measure, in short, because it could possibly harm a private student lending firm that operates in his state.

– Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR): Lincoln is “[t]rying to have it both ways” on the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) by refusing to say whether she’ll support the measure. As Arkansas News columnist John Brummett explained recently, Lincoln has an upcoming fundraiser which is expected to be heavily attended by the business community who appreciate her “generally pro-business voting record.” At the same time, however, Vice President Joe Biden — who supports EFCA — will headline at her fundraiser. As such and at the expense of the EFCA campaign, Lincoln appears to be remaining intentionally vague on EFCA in order to more easily fill her campaign coffers.

These Senators are enhancing the Republicans’ ability to “delay and obstruct,” with little to no positive benefits. Indeed, the fact that Reid will likely pass the omnibus package today with the Cuba provision intact should demonstrate that the Menendez delay tactic is not productive.