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Tom Lantos

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Lantos was a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, and 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. He opposed Social Security privatization efforts. He supported same-sex marriage rights and marijuana for medical use, was a strong proponent of gun control and adamantly pro-choice.

Lantos was an advocate on behalf of the environment, receiving consistently high ratings from the League of Conservation Voters and other environmental organizations for his legislative record. His long-standing efforts to protect open space 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.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and Lantos

While Lantos initially supported the Iraq War, from 2006 onward he distanced himself, making increasingly critical statements about the conduct of the war.

Foreign affairs issues

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon with Tom and Annette Lantos

Lantos served as the chairman of the United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs. Through its more than 20 years of work, the Congressional Human Rights Caucus — of which Lantos was co-chair with Representative Frank Wolf — covered a wide range of human rights issues. They included speaking for Christians in Saudi Arabia and Sudan to practice their faith, helping Tibetans to retain their culture and religion in Tibet, and advocating for other minorities worldwide.

Among his other efforts was a demand that Japan apologize for sex slavery during World War II. He declared Turkey's mass killings of Armenians during World War I to be Genocide. In more recent times, he supported democracy in Burma and pressed for sanctions on Iran for supporting terrorism. In 2004, he sponsored a bill to stop the spread of anti-semitism.

On other aspects of American foreign policy, Lantos spoke out against waste, fraud and abuse in the multibillion-dollar U.S. reconstruction program in Iraq, and warned that the U.S. could lose Afghanistan to the Taliban if the Bush administration failed to take decisive action to halt the current decline in political stability there. Lantos was against U.S. military aid to Egypt as the Egyptian military had failed to stop the flow of money and weapons across the Egyptian border to Hamas in Gaza, and Egypt had not contributed troops to the peacekeeping efforts in Afghanistan and elsewhere.

1991 Gulf War

See also: Nurse Nayirah

Lantos was a strong supporter of the 1991 Persian Gulf War. During the run-up to the war, the Congressional Human Rights Caucus, of which Lantos was co-chairman, hosted a 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. The girl's account was later challenged by independent human rights monitors.

"Nurse Nayirah" later turned out to be the daughter of the Kuwaiti ambassador to the United States. Asked about having allowed the girl to give testimony without identifying herself, and without her story having been corroborated, Lantos replied, "The notion that any of the witnesses brought to the caucus through the Kuwaiti Embassy would not be credible did not cross my mind... I have no basis for assuming that her story is not true, but the point goes beyond that. If one hypothesizes that the woman's story is fictitious from A to Z, that in no way diminishes the avalanche of human rights violations."

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation sent investigators to Kuwait who went through the hospital and counted the incubators and they found that "except for one or two that may have been misplaced" all of the incubators were still in the hospital. The investigators concluded that there were no deaths resulting from stolen equipment. And the doctor who provided Amnesty International with the number of babies killed dropped from 312 to 72 and then 30, 19 of which died before the invasion of Kuwait by Iraq. After the war, The New York Times wrote, "It's plainly wrong for a member of congress to collaborate with a public relations firm to produce knowingly deceptive testimony on an important issue. Yet Representative Tom Lantos has been caught doing exactly that. His behavior warrants a searching inquiry by the House Ethics Committee."

War in Iraq

On October 4, 2002, Lantos led a narrow majority of Democrats on the House International Relations Committee to a successful vote in support of the Resolution for the Use of Force, seeking the approval of the United Nations and under the condition that President George W. Bush would allow UN weapons inspectors to finish their work and that Bush would need to return to Congress for an actual declaration of war before invading Iraq. The resolution later passed the House and the Senate with a total of 373 members of Congress supporting it. "The train is now on its way", said Lantos after the resolution successfully passed both houses of Congress. In later hearings on the war, Lantos continued his enthusiastic support.

Starting in early 2006, Lantos distanced himself from the Bush Administration's Iraq policy, making critical statements at hearings, on the House floor and in published media interviews about the conduct of the war. During hearings of the House International Relations Committee, where he was then the ranking member, Lantos repeatedly praised the investigative work of the office of the Special Inspector of Iraq Reconstruction General Stuart Bowen, which uncovered evidence of waste, fraud and abuse in the use of U.S. taxpayer dollars intended to help secure and rebuild Iraq. Lantos was an immediate and consistent critic of the troop surge advocated by President Bush. On the night in January 2007 that Bush announced his plan, Lantos responded, "I oppose the so-called surge that constitutes the centerpiece of the President's plan. Our efforts in Iraq are a mess, and throwing in more troops will not improve it."

During a joint House hearing on September 10, 2007, featuring General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker, Lantos said:

The Administration's myopic policies in Iraq have created a fiasco. Is it any wonder that on the subject of Iraq, more and more Americans have little confidence in this Administration? We can not take ANY of this Administration's assertions on Iraq at face value anymore, and no amount of charts or statistics will improve its credibility. This is not a knock on you, General Petraeus, or on you, Ambassador Crocker. But the fact remains, gentlemen, that the Administration has sent you here today to convince the members of these two Committees and the Congress that victory is at hand. With all due respect to you, I must say ... I don't buy it.

At the same hearing, Lantos drew comparisons between some of the current U.S. activities in Iraq to U.S. support two decades ago of Islamic militants in Afghanistan:

America should not be in the business of arming, training and funding both sides of a religious civil war in Iraq. Did the Administration learn nothing from our country's actions in Afghanistan two decades ago, when by supporting Islamist militants against the Soviet Union, we helped pave the way for the rise of the Taliban? Why are we now repeating the short-sighted patterns of the past?

Human rights advocate

Presenting the Dalai Lama with the Congressional Gold Medal, 2007

Tibet

As co-founder of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus in 1983 and as Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Lantos would "stir the consciousness of world leaders and the public alike", according to Representative Nancy Pelosi. She added: "Wherever there was injustice or oppression, he used his expertise and moral authority to put the United States on the side of justice and human rights". In 2007, in his effort to help the people of China and Tibet, he presented the Dalai Lama with the Congressional Gold Medal.

Darfur

On April 28, 2006, Lantos and four other Democratic U.S. Representatives, along with six other activists, took part in a civil disobedience action in front of the Sudanese embassy in Washington, D.C. They were protesting the role of the Sudanese government in carrying out genocide in the Darfur conflict and were arrested for disorderly conduct.

Hungarian minorities

Lantos was an activist for the rights of Hungarian minorities;Cite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page).

Death and legacy

Lantos's grave in Congressional Cemetery, Washington, D.C. The letters at the bottom are a Hebrew abbreviation for May his soul be bound up in the bond of eternal life.

On January 2, 2008, after having been diagnosed with esophageal cancer, Lantos announced he would not run for a 15th term in the House, but planned to complete his final term, and thanked Congress:

It is only in the United States that a penniless survivor of the Holocaust and a fighter in the anti-Nazi underground could have received an education, raised a family, and had the privilege of serving the last three decades of his life as a Member of Congress. I will never be able to express fully my profoundly felt gratitude to this great country."

Lantos died of complications from esophageal cancer on February 11, 2008, before finishing his term. A special election was held to fill his seat on April 8, 2008, and was won by former State Senator Jackie Speier, whom Lantos had endorsed. Shortly after his death, Roy Blunt, the House Republican Whip, stated that "Chairman Lantos will be remembered as a man of uncommon integrity and sincere moral conviction — and a public servant who never wavered in his pursuit of a better, freer and more religiously tolerant world."

A memorial service was held for Lantos on February 14, 2008, at Statuary Hall in the Capitol. Speakers included Senator Joe Biden, Bono of U2, Rep. Steny Hoyer, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Rep. Christopher Shays and Elie Wiesel.

On June 19, 2008, President George W. Bush posthumously awarded Lantos the Medal of Freedom. In a ceremony at the White House, Bush stated "We miss his vigorous defense of human rights and his powerful witness for the cause of human freedom. For a lifetime of leadership, for his commitment to liberty, and for his devoted service to his adopted nation, I am proud to award the Presidential Medal of Freedom, posthumously, to Tom Lantos, and proud that his loving wife Annette will receive the award on behalf of his family."

In 2008, the Congressional Human Rights Caucus, which he founded in 1983, was renamed The Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission. Its mission is partly "to promote, defend and advocate internationally recognized human rights." The first Lantos Human Rights Prize, named in the congressman's memory, was presented to the 14th Dalai Lama in 2009. In 2011, the Institute was set up in Budapest to promote tolerance and support minority issues in central and eastern Europe and in the world.

In the final weeks of his life, Lantos asked that a non-profit be established to carry on the work he felt so passionately about. The Tom Lantos Foundation for Human Rights & Justice was founded later that year to carry out that wish. Lantos's daughter, Katrina Lantos Swett, serves as the Foundation's President and CEO.

On September 10, 2011, the Peninsula Humane Society & SPCA officially opened the Tom and Annette Lantos Center for Compassion, located at 1450 Rollins Road in Burlingame, California. The facility was funded with a naming gift in the Lantos's honor by Oracle founder, Larry Ellison, and his wife, Melanie.

  • Tom Lantos Tunnels south of San Francisco have been named after the late Congressman, as has a street in Netanya, Israel.
  • BBYO, Inc. (formerly B'nai B'rith Youth Organization) chapter honored Tom Lantos's legacy by naming the chapter in his honor. Lantos AZA #2539 now thrives in the Rockville, Maryland, area.

Budapest named a promenade in the city in honor of Lantos in 2016.

Lantos received the Grand Cross, Hungary's highest civilian honor.

Congressional scorecards

See also

Project Vote Smart provides the following results from congressional scorecards.

Controversies

During a 1996 congressional inquiry into the Filegate scandal, 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 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) for this comment.

On May 3, 2000, Lantos was involved in an automobile accident while driving on Capitol Hill. He drove over a young boy's foot and then failed to stop his vehicle and was later fined over the incident for inattentive driving.

In 2002, Lantos, who was on the House Committee on International Affairs, took Colette Avital, a Labor Party member of the Israeli Knesset, by the hand and, according to Haaretz, tried to reassure her with these words: "My dear Colette, don't worry. You won't have any problem with Saddam. We'll be rid of the bastard soon enough. And in his place we'll install a pro-Western dictator, who will be good for us and for you." He later denied saying this, but Avital confirmed it, according to Ben Terrall, an adviser to Maad H. Abu-Ghazalah, a Libertarian Party candidate who ran against Lantos that year.

In June 2007, Lantos called former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder a "political prostitute" at the dedication ceremony of the Victims of Communism Memorial, which caused a political backlash from the German government. Lantos was referring to Schröder's ties to energy business in Russia, and remarked that this appellation would offend prostitutes.

In October 2007, Dutch parliament members said Lantos insulted them while discussing the War on Terror by stating that the Netherlands had to help the United States because it liberated them in World War II, while adding that "Europe was not as outraged by Auschwitz as by Guantanamo Bay."

On January 6, 2008, FBI whistleblower Sibel Edmonds included Lantos's photograph among others featured in the "State Secrets Privilege Gallery" posted on her website, composing images of figures considered to be relevant to her case. On August 8, 2009, she gave sworn testimony about Lantos and others during a witness deposition before the Ohio Elections Commission in the Schmidt v. Krikorian case, in which she alleged that he had engaged in "ot only ... bribe, but also ... disclosing highest level protected U.S. intelligence and weapons technology information both to Israel and to Turkey. ... other very serious criminal conduct."

Electoral history

California's 11th congressional district: Results 1980–1990
Year Democratic Votes Pct Republican Votes Pct 3rd Party Party Votes Pct 3rd Party Party Votes Pct
1980 Tom Lantos 85,823 46% Bill Royer 80,100 43% Wilson Branch Peace and Freedom 13,723 7% William S. Wade, Jr. Libertarian 3,816 2% *
1982 Tom Lantos 109,812 57% Bill Royer 76,462 40% Chuck Olson Libertarian 2,920 2% Wilson Branch Peace and Freedom 1,928 1% *
1984 Tom Lantos 147,607 70% Jack Hickey 59,625 28% Nicholas W. Kudrovzeff American Independent 3,883 2%
1986 Tom Lantos 112,380 74% Bill Quraishi 39,315 26%
1988 Tom Lantos 145,484 71% Bill Quraishi 50,050 24% Bill Wade Libertarian 4,683 2% Victor Martinez Peace and Freedom 2,906 1% *
1990 Tom Lantos 105,029 66% Bill Quraishi 45,818 29% June R. Genis Libertarian 8,518 5%

*Write-in and minor candidate notes: In 1980, Nicholas W. Kudrovzeff, American Independent Party, received 1,550 votes (1%). In 1982, Nicholas W. Kudrovzeff, American Independent Party, received 1,250 votes (1%). In 1988, Nicholas W. Kudrovzeff, American Independent Party, received 1,893 votes (1%).

California's 12th congressional district: Results 1992–2006
Year Democratic Votes Pct Republican Votes Pct 3rd Party Party Votes Pct 3rd Party Party Votes Pct
1992 Tom Lantos 157,205 69% Jim Tomlin 53,278 23% Mary Weldon Peace and Freedom 10,142 4% George O'Brien Libertarian 7,782 3%
1994 Tom Lantos 118,408 67% Deborah Wilder 57,228 33%
1996 Tom Lantos 149,049 72% Storm Jenkins 49,276 24% Christopher V.A. Schmidt Libertarian 6,111 3% Richard Borg Natural Law 3,472 2%
1998 Tom Lantos 128,135 74% Robert Evans, Jr. 36,562 21% Michael J. Moloney Libertarian 8,515 5%
2000 Tom Lantos 158,404 75% Mike Garza 44,162 21% Barbara J. Less Libertarian 6,431 3% Rifkin Young Natural Law 3,559 2%
2002 Tom Lantos 105,597 68% Michael Moloney 38,381 25% Maad H. Abu-Ghazalah Libertarian 11,006 7%
2004 Tom Lantos 171,852 68% Mike Garza 52,593 21% Pat Gray Green 23,038 9% Harland Harrison Libertarian 5,116 2%
2006 Tom Lantos 138,650 76% Michael Moloney 43,674 24%

See also

References

  1. "PRO-CHOICE AMERICANS PAY TRIBUTE TO REPRESENTATIVE TOM LANTOS' LEGACY OF LEADERSHIP", NARAL: Pro-Choice America
  2. Edward Epstein (December 7, 2005). "Bay Area: Recreation area about to get bigger: Historic rancho near Devil's Slide a deal at $15 million". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved October 5, 2014.
  3. "Bush signs Lantos' open space bill". San Mateo Daily Journal. December 22, 2005. Archived from the original on October 6, 2014. Retrieved October 5, 2014. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  4. ^ "Tom Lantos, 80, Is Dead; Longtime Congressman", New York Times, Feb. 12, 2008
  5. "Bush inks Jewish bill by Lantos". San Francisco Chronicle. October 19, 2004. Retrieved October 5, 2014.
  6. ^ Opening Statement by Chairman Lantos at hearing With General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker Archived 2015-10-18 at the Wayback Machine, September 10, 2007; accessed November 18, 2014.
  7. ^ Clifford Krauss (January 12, 1992). "Congressman Says Girl Was Credible". The New York Times. Retrieved October 5, 2014.
  8. "Deception on Capitol Hill". The New York Times. January 15, 1992. Retrieved October 5, 2014.
  9. ProQuest Historical Newspapers, The New York Times , p. A-20)
  10. Alison Mitchell (October 4, 2002). "Threats and Responses: the Congressional Resolution; Lawmakers Begin Push to Give Bush Authority on Iraq". The New York Times.
  11. Lantos, Tom. "I Am Disappointed in the President's Alleged New Plan for Iraq", The Hill, Jan. 12, 2007
  12. "PELOSI — 'America Is More True to Its Founding Ideals Because Tom Lantos Chose to Call This Land His Home'", Nancy Pelosi, at Democraticleader.gov Feb. 12, 2008
  13. Jim Doyle (April 28, 2006). "Five members of Congress arrested over Sudan protest". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved October 5, 2014.
  14. Shaun Bishop (January 17, 2008). "Lantos endorses Speier as 'our best candidate'". Insidebayarea.com. Retrieved 2010-06-15.
  15. "Rep. Tom Lantos of California dies at 80". CNN. 2008-02-11. Retrieved 2010-06-15.
  16. "Funeral: Tom Lantos (2008)". NNDb.com. Retrieved 2010-06-15.
  17. , George W. Bush awards Tom Lantos posthumous freedom medal, georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov; accessed November 18, 2014.
  18. Cite error: The named reference Institute was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  19. "The Foundation — Lantos Foundation". Lantosfoundation.org. Retrieved 2016-06-28.
  20. "New Peninsula Humane Society Opens in Burlingame", burlingame.patch.com, September 9, 2011. Archived March 22, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
  21. Shmulovich, Michal (2016-02-05). "Budapest names promenade for late Jewish congressman Tom Lantos". The Times of Israel. Retrieved 2016-06-28.
  22. "Controversial writer Zsolt Bayer was given one of Hungary's highest national honors, and past recipients are rejecting theirs in protest — Quartz". Qz.com. 2016-09-09. Retrieved 2016-10-08.
  23. "Representative Tom Lantos (CA)". vote-smart.org. Project Vote Smart. Retrieved 2014-10-05.
  24. "Scorecard for the 109th Congress U.S. House of Representatives". Secular.org. Secular Coalition for America. Archived from the original on September 28, 2007. Retrieved 2007-12-31.
  25. George Lardner, Jr, "Panel Sputters; Immunity Vote Fails", The Washington Post, May 14, 1998; retrieved September 11, 1997.
  26. Jackie Kucinich, In trouble with the law: run-ins with police are fact of Capitol life Archived 2017-06-30 at the Wayback Machine, The Hill, May 11, 2006; accessed February 15, 2008.
  27. Akiva Eldar (September 30, 2002). "They're jumping in head first". Haaretz. Retrieved October 5, 2014.
  28. Ben Terrall, Tom Lantos' Big Lie: The Pro-War Congressman Calls for Replacing Saddam with a Pro-West "Dictator" Archived 2007-12-11 at the Wayback Machine CounterPunch, October 25, 2002.
  29. "US Lawmaker's "Prostitute" Remarks Provokes Germany". Deutsche Welle. June 13, 2007. Retrieved October 5, 2014.
  30. "Dutch lawmakers offended by Rep. Lantos", USA Today, Oct. 27, 2007
  31. "Sibel Edmonds Launches 'State Secrets Privilege Gallery'". History Commons. Retrieved October 6, 2014.
  32. "Case No. 2009E-003" (PDF).
  33. Brad Friedman (October 21, 2009). "FBI Whistleblower: Hastert, Burton, Blunt, Other Members of Congress 'Bribed, Blackmailed'". Huffington Post. Retrieved October 6, 2014.
  34. ^ "Election Statistics". Office of the Clerk of the House of Representatives. Archived from the original on 2008-07-30. Retrieved 2008-01-10. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)

External links

U.S. House of Representatives
Preceded byWilliam Royer Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from California's 11th congressional district
1981–1993 		Succeeded byRichard Pombo
Preceded byTom Campbell Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from California's 12th congressional district
1993–2008 		Succeeded byJackie Speier
New office Chair of the House Human Rights Commission
1983–1995 		Succeeded byJohn Porter
Preceded byJohn Porter Ranking Member of the House Human Rights Commission
1995–2007 		Succeeded byFrank Wolf
Preceded bySam Gejdenson Ranking Member of House Foreign Affairs Committee
2001–2007 		Succeeded byIleana Ros-Lehtinen
Preceded byHenry Hyde Chair of House Foreign Affairs Committee
2007–2008 		Succeeded byHoward Berman
Preceded byFrank Wolf Chair of the House Human Rights Commission
2007–2008 		Succeeded byJim McGovern
Chairmen of the United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs
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