Tom Lantos
| Tom Lantos | |
 |
|
|
|
|
| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office January 5, 1981 |
|
| Preceded by | William H. Royer |
|---|---|
| Succeeded by | Incumbent |
|
|
|
| Born | February 01 1928 Budapest, Hungary |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse | Annette Lantos |
| Religion | Jewish |
Thomas Peter "Tom" Lantos, Ph.D (born February 1 1928, Budapest, Hungary as Lantos Tamás Péter) has been a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives since 1981, representing California's 12th congressional district, located in the southwest part of San Francisco County and the northern part of San Mateo County. He is the chairman of the United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs and expressed critical views of the military surge in Iraq during the Joint U.S. House hearing on September 10, 2007.
Lantos is a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus[1] and has repeatedly called for reforms to the nation's
health-care system, reduction of the national budget deficit and the national
debt, repeal of the Economic Growth and Tax
Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001, and has opposed Social
Security privatization efforts. He supports gay marriage
rights and marijuana for medical use, is a strong proponent of gun control[2]
and is adamantly
Lantos is a well-known advocate on behalf of the environment, receiving consistently high ratings from the League of Conservation Voters and other environmental organizations for his legislative record.[4] His long-standing efforts to protect open space have brought thousands of acres under the protection of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, including Mori Point, Sweeney Ridge and — most recently — Rancho Corral de Tierra, which will keep its watersheds and delicate habitats free from development permanently.[5][6] In 2005 he opposed an effort to expand public use of the Farallon Islands, a protected wildlife haven.
Lantos has consistently championed local transportation projects that need federal funds and, given his seniority in Congress, has proven highly successful at delivering this support.
Personal and family life
Born to a Jewish family in Budapest, Hungary, Lantos was part of an anti-Nazi resistance movement during the German occupation of that country and sought refuge in a safe house established by Raoul Wallenberg. In 1981 Lantos sponsored a bill making Wallenberg an Honorary Citizen of the United States.
Lantos considers himself a secular Jew and is the only Holocaust survivor ever to serve in the House.[7] Upon immigrating to the United States, he attended the University of Washington and the University of California, Berkeley (Ph.D. 1953).
For three decades prior to his service in Congress (1950–1980), Congressman Lantos was a professor of economics, an international affairs analyst for public television, and a consultant to a number of businesses. He also served in senior advisory roles to members of the United States Senate.
Tom and his wife Annette are the parents of two daughters — Annette and Katrina — and one son. They have seventeen grandchildren. Though his wife, their children, and many of his grandchildren are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Congressman continues to retain his Jewish faith. Annette Lantos is a first cousin of the Gabor sisters, Zsa Zsa, Eva, and Magda.[8] Their daughter Katrina is now Katrina Swett, former candidate for US Senate in the State of New Hampshire and wife of Richard Swett, the former house representative from New Hampshire's second congressional district.
Foreign affairs issues
Congressman Lantos currently serves as the chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.
Through its more than 20 years of work, the Congressional Human Rights Caucus[9] — of which Congressman Lantos is co-chair with Representative Frank Wolf — has covered a wide range of rights and abuses, speaking out for Christians who want to practice their faith in Saudi Arabia and Sudan, fighting for Tibetans to be able to retain their culture and religion in Tibet and advocating for other oppressed minorities worldwide. Lantos’ efforts to protect religious freedom in 2004 resulted in a bill to halt the global spread of anti-Semitism.[10]
Congressman Lantos and his colleagues on the International Relations Committee are also involved with many decisions that affect other aspects of American foreign policy. Lantos has spoken out strongly against waste, fraud and abuse in the multi-billion dollar U.S. reconstruction program in Iraq, and has warned that the U.S. may lose Afghanistan back to the Taliban unless the Bush Administration takes quick action to halt the current decline in security and political stability in Afghanistan.
Lantos, then the ranking Democrat in the US House of Representatives International Relations Committee, tried to redirect U.S. military aid to Egypt towards desperately-needed economic assistance. Lantos argued that the Egyptian military had made insufficient efforts to stop the flow of money and weapons across the Egyptian border to Hamas terrorists in Gaza, and had not contributed troops to internationally-supported peacekeeping efforts in Afghanistan and elsewhere.
Congressman Lantos has recently made a controversial statement accusing former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder of being a "political prostitute," with regards to Schröder's ties to energy business in Russia, and remarked that this appellation would offend prostitutes.
1991 Persian Gulf War
Lantos was a strong supporter of the 1991 Persian Gulf War. During the run-up to the war, Lantos used his Congressional Human Rights Caucus to host a well-spoken young Kuwaiti woman identified only as
"Nurse Nayirah", who told of horrific abuses by Iraqi soldiers, including the killing of
Kuwaiti babies by taking them out of their incubators and leaving them to die on the cold floor of the hospital. These alleged
atrocities figured prominently in the rhetoric at the time about Iraqi abuses in Kuwait. This story later proved to be a complete
fabrication. "Nurse Nariyah" was, in fact the daughter of the Kuwaiti ambassador to the United States, and had been coached on
this story by the PR firm of Hill & Knowlton, who were paid $14 million by
representatives of the Government of Kuwait to create a PR campaign to generate U.S. support for an invasion.
War in Iraq
By September, 2002, Lantos had shown himself to be a supporter of the White House position on the war. On October 4, 2002, Mr. Lantos led a narrow majority of Democrats on the House International Relations Committee to a successful vote in support of the President's path toward war, seeking the approval of the United Nations, but allowing the President to strike out on his own if necessary. "The train is now on its way," said Mr. Lantos after his - and the President's - victory. [13] In later hearings on the war, Mr. Lantos continued his enthusiastic support. At one point he was confronted by witnesses who questioned the likelihood of enthusiastic Baghdadis welcoming the invading Americans; Mr. Lantos called this a kind of racism, to suggest the Iraqis might be so ungrateful.
More recently, Mr. Lantos has distanced himself from the Bush Administration's Iraq policy.
Darfur
On 28 April 2006, Lantos, along with four other members of Congress and six other activists, was arrested for disorderly conduct in front of the Sudanese embassy in Washington. They were protesting the alleged role of Sudan's government in ethnic cleansing in Darfur.[14]
Lebanon
Lantos said in Israel, at Israel’s Foreign Ministry, on August 27, 2006, that he will block aid promised by President George W. Bush to Lebanon and free the funds only when Beirut agreed to the deployment of international troops on the border with Syria. He was meeting at the time with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni after talks with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
Controversy
During a 1996 Congressional inquiry into the "Filegate" scandal, Rep. Lantos told witness Craig Livingstone that "with an infinitely more distinguished public record than yours, Admiral Boorda committed suicide when he may have committed a minor mistake." Boorda, the Chief of Naval Operations, had recently taken his own life after his right to wear Combat V decorations had been questioned. Lantos was criticized by some (including fellow Congressman Joe Scarborough) who interpreted the remark as a suggestion that Livingstone too should kill himself.[15]
On May 3, 2000, Lantos was involved in an automobile accident while driving on Capitol Hill. Lantos drove over a young boy's foot and then failed to stop his vehicle. He was later fined over the incident for inattentive driving.
Trivia
 |
Trivia sections are discouraged under
Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones. |
Congressman Lantos appeared in the Academy Award winning film The Last Days, a documentary of the Holocaust's effect on Hungarian Jews, and "To Bear Witness", another documentary.[16]
Congressman Lantos often brings a small white terrier named Mackó (little bear in Hungarian, pronounced mɒtskoː) to his Capitol Hill office. The Lantos' previous dog, a small poodle named Gigi, was also a fixture in Washington.
References
- ^ Congressional Progressive Caucus membership list, accessed 25 September 2006.
- ^ Vote Smart: Tom Lantos: Gun issues, accessed 25 September 2006.
- ^ Vote Smart: Tom Lantos: Abortion issues, accessed 25 September 2006.
- ^ Vote Smart: Tom Lantos: Environmental Issues, accessed 25 September 2006.
- ^ Edward Epstein, BAY AREA: Recreation area about to get bigger: Historic rancho near Devil's Slide a deal at $15 million, San Francisco Chronicle, December 7, 2005. Accessed online 25 September 2006.
- ^ Bush signs Lantos’ open space bill, San Mateo Daily Journal, December 22, 2005. Accessed online 25 September 2006.
- ^ Janine Zacharia, Lantos's List, Jerusalem Post, dated 13 April but year not given, presumably 2001. Janine Zacharia, Lantos' D.C. office is a Living Tribute to Wallenberg, originally from Jewish Bulletin of Northern California (credited as a Jerusalem Post Service story, and appears to be a reworking of the previous story), April 20, 2001; reproduced on Lantos's congressional web site. Aleza Goldsmith, Arab-American challenges Lantos in three-way race, Jewish News Weekly of Northern California (formerly Jewish Bulletin of Northern California), October 4, 2002. All accessed 25 September 2006.
- ^ Mark Simon, Lantos Sells House in Hillsborough, San Francisco Chronicle, June 22, 2000. Accessed 25 September 2006.
- ^ Index of Congressional Human Rights Caucus stories on Lantos's congressional site. Accessed 25 September 2006.
- ^ Chronicle Washington Bureau, Bush inks Jewish bill by Lantos, San Francisco Chronicle, October 19, 2004. Accessed 25 September 2006.
- ^ John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton, Suffer the Little Children: PR and Lies in Kuwait, excerpted from the book Toxic Sludge Is Good For You, Common Courage Press, 1995; on ThirdWorldTraveler.com. Accessed 25 September 2006.
- ^ (German) Nils Klawitter, Meister der Verdrehung ("Master of Deception"), Der Spiegel 31/2006, p.72–76; the relevant passage is on page 74 (referring to the Nayirah incident in general, not to Lantos's involvement).
- ^ "THREATS AND RESPONSES: THE CONGRESSIONAL RESOLUTION; LAWMAKERS BEGIN PUSH TO GIVE BUSH AUTHORITY ON IRAQ," by Alison Mitchell, New York Times, October 4, 2002
- ^ Jim Doyle, Five members of Congress arrested over Sudan protest, San Francisco Chronicle, April 28, 2006. Accessed 25 September 2006.
- ^ George Lardner, Jr, Panel Sputters; Immunity Vote Fails, Washington Post, May 14, 1998. Accessed 11 September 1997.
- ^ Tom Lantos at the Internet Movie Database. Accessed 25 September 2006.
See also
External links
- U.S. Congressman Tom Lantos official House site
- Tom Lantos at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
- Federal Election Commission — Tom Lantos campaign finance reports and data
- Notable Names DataBase — Tom Lantos
- On the Issues — Tom Lantos issue positions and quotes
- OpenSecrets.org — Tom Lantos campaign contributions
- Project Vote Smart — Representative Tom Lantos (CA) profile
- SourceWatch Congresspedia — Tom Lantos profile
- Washington Post — Congress Votes Database: Tom Lantos voting record
- Tom Lantos for Congress official campaign site
- They're jumping in head first Akiva Eldar, Ha'aretz, September 30, 2002
- Lantos' D.C. office is a living tribute to Wallenberg Janine Zacharia, Jewish News Weekly of Northern California, April 20, 2001
- Lantos Lashes Out at Germany and France
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by William H. Royer |
United States Representative for the 11th Congressional District of
California 1981–1993 |
Succeeded by Richard W. Pombo |
| Preceded by Thomas J. Campbell |
United States Representative for the 12th Congressional District of
California 1993- |
Succeeded by Incumbent |
| Preceded by Henry J. Hyde Illinois |
Chairman of House Foreign Relations Committee 2007–Present |
Succeeded by Incumbent |
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
