Tom Lantos

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The native form of this personal name is Lantos Tamás Péter. This article uses the Western name order.
Tom Lantos
Tom Lantos
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from California's 12th district
In office
January 5, 1981 – February 11, 2008
Preceded by William H. Royer
Succeeded by Jackie Speier
Born February 1, 1928(1928-02-01)
Budapest, Hungary
Died February 11, 2008 (aged 80)
National Naval Medical Center, Bethesda, Maryland
Political party Democratic
Spouse Annette Lantos
Religion Jewish (non practicing) [1]

Thomas Peter Lantos (February 1, 1928 – February 11, 2008)[2] was a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives from 1981 until his death, representing the northern two-thirds of San Mateo County and a small portion of southwest San Francisco. Lantos had announced in early January 2008 that he would not run for reelection because of cancer of the esophagus,[3][4] but died before finishing his term. Lantos was the only Holocaust survivor to have served in the US Congress.

Contents

[edit] Personal and family life

Born as Lantos Tamás Péter (pronounced ['lɒntoʃ 'tɒmaːʃ 'peːtɛr]) to a Jewish family in Budapest, Hungary, Lantos was part of a resistance movement against the Nazis during the German occupation of Hungary. In his floor speeches, he sometimes referred to himself as one of the few living members of Congress who had fought against fascism.

He 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. He moved to the United States in 1947, and though he became fluent in English, he retained a marked Hungarian accent for the rest of his life.

Lantos considered himself a secular Jew[1] . Upon immigrating to the United States under the auspices of Hillel he attended the University of Washington and the University of California, Berkeley, receiving his Ph.D in 1953.

From 1950 to 1980, Lantos was a professor of economics, an international affairs analyst for public television, and a consultant to a number of businesses. He also served as a senior advisor to several U.S. Senators.

Lantos made his first run for office in 1980, when he defeated one-term Republican congressman Bill Royer by 5,700 votes. He never faced another contest nearly that close, and was reelected 13 times. He was the only Holocaust survivor ever to serve in Congress.[5]

Lantos and his wife Annette have two daughters, Annette and Katrina, and 17 grandchildren. Lantos' wife is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints[6]. Annette Lantos is a first cousin of the sisters Zsa Zsa, Eva, and Magda Gabor.[7] Katrina, who married ambassador and former U.S. Representative from New Hampshire Richard Swett, was a candidate for Congress in New Hampshire, running for the House of Representatives in 2002 against Charlie Bass and in 2008 for the U.S. Senate against John Sununu. His daughter Annette was married to Timber Dick, "an independent businessman in Colorado,"[8] until Dick's death on April 10, 2008 from burns suffered in an automobile accident.[9][10]

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.[11]

Lantos often brought a small white terrier named Mackó (pronounced [mɒtskoː]; "little bear" in Hungarian) to his Capitol Hill office. Lantos' previous dog, a small poodle named Gigi, was also a fixture in Washington.

Tom Lantos was an honorary member of the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation.

[edit] Political positions

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and Lantos
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and Lantos

Lantos was a strong supporter of the Iraq War from the start, but from 2006 onward made increasingly critical statements about the conduct of the war, and as the chairman of the United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs he held 20 oversight hearings on the war in 2007. (See separate section below about the war in Iraq.)

Lantos was a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus[12] 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, and has opposed Social Security privatization efforts. He supported same-sex marriage rights and marijuana for medical use, was a strong proponent of gun control[13] and was adamantly pro-choice.[14]

Lantos was 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.[15] 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.[16][17] In 2005 he opposed an effort to expand public use of the Farallon Islands, a protected wildlife haven.

Lantos consistently championed local transportation projects that need federal funds and, given his seniority in Congress, proved successful at delivering this support.

He also championed human rights. For example, Yahoo turned over the email records of two pro-democracy dissidents to the Chinese government that allowed it to trace them. One was given ten years in a Chinese dungeon. Lantos had Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang testify at a congressional hearing with the weeping mother of the political prisoner seated directly behind him.

[edit] Foreign affairs issues

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon with Lantos and his wife, Annette Lantos
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon with Lantos and his wife, 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[18] — of which Lantos was co-chair with Representative Frank Wolf — has covered a wide range of human rights issues, 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 antisemitism.[19]

Lantos was involved with his colleagues on the International Relations Committee on many decisions that affect other aspects of American foreign policy. Lantos spoke 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 to the Taliban if the Bush Administration fails to take decisive action to halt the current decline in political stability there.

Lantos, then the ranking Democrat on the International Relations Committee, tried to disrupt U.S. military aid to Egypt. Lantos argued that the Egyptian military had made insufficient efforts to stop the flow of money and weapons across the Egyptian border to Hamas in Gaza, and had not contributed troops to internationally-supported peacekeeping efforts in Afghanistan and elsewhere. Lantos was a strong advocate of Israel

[edit] 1991 Persian 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.[20] "Nurse Nayirah" later turned out to be the daughter of the Kuwaiti ambassador to the United States.[20] Asked about his 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."[20]

Lantos and John R. MacArthur, the foremost critic of the Nayirah issue, each had op-eds features in The New York Times, in which each accused the other of distortion.[21] MacArthur suggested that Lantos may have materially benefited from his having accommodated Nayirah.[22] Nayirah was later revealed to have connections to a lobbying firm in the employ of a Kuwaiti activist group, and her story has since come to be regarded as baseless propaganda.[22]

[edit] 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 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 his — and the President's — victory.[23] In later hearings on the war, Lantos continued his enthusiastic support. At one point he was confronted by witnesses who questioned the likelihood of enthusiastic Baghdadis welcoming the invading Americans; Lantos called this a kind of racism, to suggest the Iraqis might be so ungrateful.

Starting in early 2006, Lantos has 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." And 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?"[24]

[edit] Darfur

On April 28, 2006, Lantos and four other Democratic U.S. Representatives (Sheila Jackson Lee, Jim McGovern, Jim Moran, and John Olver), 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.[25]

[edit] Hungarian minorities

Tom Lantos stood up for the rights of Hungarian minorities several times[26][27] as a member of the US House of Representatives. In a 2007 letter he asked Robert Fico, the Prime Minister of Slovakia to distance themselves from the Benes decrees, a reasonable process in the Hedvig Malina case, and to treat members of the Hungarian minority as equal[28][29]. He indirectly blamed the Slovak government for ethnically motivated attacks on Hungarians because the country's governing coalition included ultra-nationalist parties[30].

[edit] Lebanon

On August 27, 2006, at the Israeli Foreign Ministry building in Israel, Lantos said he would block a foreign aid package 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. Lantos was meeting at the time with Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni after talks with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

[edit] Planned Retirement and Death

On January 2, 2008, Lantos announced he would not run for a 15th term in the House due to being diagnosed with esophagus cancer, but planned to complete his final term. Lantos was quoted as saying, "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," he said. "I will never be able to express fully my profoundly felt gratitude to this great country."[31][32] Lantos died on February 11, 2008 of complications from esophageal cancer 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 who Lantos had endorsed as his successor.[33].

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."[34]

[edit] Congressional scorecards

See also

Project Vote Smart provides the following results from congressional scorecards.[35]

[edit] Controversies

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.[37]

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.[38]

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 Ha'aretz, 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."[39] 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.[40]

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.[41]

In October 2007, Dutch parliament members said Lantos insulted them while discussing the War on Terrorism by stating that the Netherlands had to help the United States, because they liberated them in the Second World War, while adding that the upheaval over Guantanamo in Europe was bigger than over Auschwitz at the time.[42]


[edit] Electoral history

California's 11th congressional district: Results 1980–1990[43]
Year Democrat 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[43]
Year Democrat 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%

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Project Vote Smart: Tom Lantos
  2. ^ "AP News Alert", Associated Press, 2008-02-11. "Rep. Tom Lantos of California, the only Holocaust survivor ever to serve in Congress, died early Monday morning, his spokeswoman said." 
  3. ^ Lantos, stricken with cancer, to retire at the end of the year San Francisco Chronicle, January 2, 2008. Accessed online 2 January, 2008
  4. ^ California's Lantos says cancer will prevent another House run. Los Angeles Times (January 3, 2008). Retrieved on 29 January 2008
  5. ^ 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, j. (formerly Jewish Bulletin of Northern California), October 4, 2002. All accessed 25 September 2006.
  6. ^ Aleza Goldsmith, Arab-American challenges Lantos in three-way race, j. (formerly Jewish Bulletin of Northern California), October 4, 2002. Accessed 25 September 2006.
  7. ^ Mark Simon, Lantos Sells House in Hillsborough, San Francisco Chronicle, June 22, 2000. Accessed 25 September 2006.
  8. ^ Tom Lantos for Congress - Biography
  9. ^ Denver inventor Dick dies after crash, Denver Post, April 11, 2008.
  10. ^ Timber Dick, a former city council candidate, dies, Rocky Mountain News, April 11, 2008.
  11. ^ Tom Lantos at the Internet Movie Database. Accessed 25 September 2006.
  12. ^ Congressional Progressive Caucus membership list, accessed 25 September 2006.
  13. ^ Vote Smart: Tom Lantos: Gun issues, accessed 25 September 2006.
  14. ^ Vote Smart: Tom Lantos: Abortion issues, accessed 25 September 2006.
  15. ^ Vote Smart: Tom Lantos: Environmental Issues, accessed 25 September 2006.
  16. ^ 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.
  17. ^ Bush signs Lantos’ open space bill, San Mateo Daily Journal, December 22, 2005. Accessed online 25 September 2006.
  18. ^ Index of Congressional Human Rights Caucus stories on Lantos's congressional site. Accessed 25 September 2006.
  19. ^ Chronicle Washington Bureau, Bush inks Jewish bill by Lantos, San Francisco Chronicle, October 19, 2004. Accessed 25 September 2006.
  20. ^ a b c CONGRESSMAN SAYS GIRL WAS CREDIBLE, The New York Times. January 12, 1992
  21. ^ Kuwaiti Gave Consistent Account of Atrocities, The New York Times. January 27, 1992
  22. ^ a b Deception on Capitol Hill, The New York Times. January 15, 1992
  23. ^ "THREATS AND RESPONSES: THE CONGRESSIONAL RESOLUTION; LAWMAKERS BEGIN PUSH TO GIVE BUSH AUTHORITY ON IRAQ," by Alison Mitchell, The New York Times, October 4, 2002
  24. ^ Petraeus Hearing, Opening Statement by Chairman Lantos at hearing With General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker. September 10, 2007
  25. ^ Jim Doyle, Five members of Congress arrested over Sudan protest, San Francisco Chronicle, April 28, 2006. Accessed September 25, 2006.
  26. ^ Letter of Lantos, titled "The Arrest Of Hungarian Intellectual Miklós Duray By The Government Of Czechoslovakia". US Congressional Record. Retrieved on 2008-03-25.
  27. ^ Official Letter from Tom Lantos to Vojislav Kostunica. Congress of the United States, Committee on International Relations. Retrieved on 2008-03-25.
  28. ^ Official Letter from Tom Lantos to Robert Fico. Congress of the United States, Committee on Foreign affairs. Retrieved on 2008-03-25.
  29. ^ Chairman of U.S. Foreign Affairs Committee Calls on Slovakian Prime Minister to disavow Benes Decrees, ensure justice for Hungarian minority. Press release of the Hungarian American Coalition USA. Retrieved on 2008-03-25.
  30. ^ U.S. lawmaker blames Slovak government for ethnically motivated attacks on Hungarians. International Herald Tribune. Retrieved on 2008-02-25.
  31. ^ Congressman Tom Lantos to Complete his Congressional Service at the End of Current Term
  32. ^ CQ Politics | California Dems Expected to Vie for Lantos Seat
  33. ^ Inside Bay Area - Lantos endorses Speier as 'our best candidate'
  34. ^ - Rep. Tom Lantos of California dies at 80
  35. ^ {{cite web f| url = http://www.vote-smart.org/issue_rating_category.php?can_id=26739 | title = "Representative Tom Lantos (CA)" | work = vote-smart.org | publisher = Project Vote Smart | accessdate = 2007-12-31 | archiveurl = http://web.archive.org/web/20060301222402/http://www.vote-smart.org/issue_rating_category.php?can_id=26739 | archivedate = 2006-03-01 }}
  36. ^ "Scorecard for the 109th Congress U.S. House of Representatives". Secular.org. Secular Coalition for America. Retrieved on 2007-12-31.
  37. ^ George Lardner, Jr, Panel Sputters; Immunity Vote Fails, The Washington Post, May 14, 1998. Accessed September 11, 1997.
  38. ^ Jackie Kucinich, In trouble with the law: run-ins with police are fact of Capitol life, The Hill, May 11, 2006. Accessed Feb. 15 2008.
  39. ^ Akiva Eldar, They're jumping in head first Ha'aretz, September 30, 2002
  40. ^ Ben Terrall, Tom Lantos' Big Lie: The Pro-War Congressman Calls for Replacing Saddam with a Pro-West "Dictator" CounterPunch, October 25, 2002
  41. ^ US Lawmaker's "Prostitute" Remarks Provokes Germany | Germany | Deutsche Welle | 13.06.2007
  42. ^ The Associated Press, Senior US Democratic lawmaker offends Dutch counterparts with historical remarks, International Herald Tribune, October 27, 2007. Accessed October 27, 2007.
  43. ^ a b Election Statistics. Office of the Clerk of the House of Representatives. Retrieved on 2008-01-10.

[edit] External links

Wikisource has original text related to this article:
Political offices
Preceded by
William H. Royer		 Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from California's 11th congressional district
1981–1993		 Succeeded by
Richard W. Pombo
Preceded by
Tom Campbell		 Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from California's 12th congressional district
1993–2008		 Succeeded by
Jackie Speier
Preceded by
Henry J. Hyde		 Chairman of House Committee on Foreign Affairs
2007–2008		 Succeeded by
Howard Berman