Calif. Rep. Tom Lantos dies

[DeclinetoState]

By ERICA WERNER, Associated Press Writer
28 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - Rep. Tom Lantos, who as a teenager twice escaped from a Nazi-run forced labor camp in Hungary and became the only Holocaust survivor to win a seat in Congress, has died. He was 80.

Spokeswoman Lynne Weil said Lantos, a Californian, died early Monday at the Bethesda Naval Medical Center in suburban Maryland. He was surrounded by his wife, Annette, two daughters, and many of his 17 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Annette Lantos said in a statement that her husband's life was "defined by courage, optimism, and unwavering dedication to his principles and to his family."

Lantos, a Democrat who chaired the House Foreign Affairs Committee, disclosed last month that he had been diagnosed with cancer of the esophagus. He said at the time that he would serve out his 14th term but would not seek re-election in his Northern California district, which takes in the southwest portion of San Francisco and suburbs to the south including Lantos' home of San Mateo.More (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080211/ap_on_go_co/obit_lantos)

[Lubbock]

Not everyone who survived the Holocaust was a candidate for Sainthood . . . and with that, I will follow Mother's dictum: If you can't speak well of someone --especially the dearly departed, you should just keep your mouth shut.

[ThomasMore]

Not everyone who survived the Holocaust was a candidate for Sainthood . . . and with that, I will follow Mother's dictum: If you can't speak well of someone --especially the dearly departed, you should just keep your mouth shut.

Agreed. Being a victim of others' evil doesn't automatically make one virtuous.

[DeclinetoState]

Didn't Rush have a clip of him telling Craig Livingstone that he ought to consider committing suicide not long after some admiral had offed himself because he was caught wearing medals or ribbons that he was not entitled to wear?

[Kathekon]

Lantos had his moments particularly on human rights but he reverted to kneejerk lib way too often for my tastes.

No chance for a GOP pickup---he drew 76% last time in a very lib district.

I would not have voted for the guy but he was an honorable man.

[Naturalized-Texan]

Didn't Rush have a clip of him telling Craig Livingstone that he ought to consider committing suicide not long after some admiral had offed himself because he was caught wearing medals or ribbons that he was not entitled to wear?
Admiral Boorda

[DoctorDoom]

I have no qualms about dissing the dead: it's one less arschloch in the Congress.

SAN MATEO -- House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Tom Lantos thinks highly of Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker, but it's "inconceivable" that their testimony before his committee next month will change his mind about the need to start withdrawing troops from Iraq.

"While we will give General Petraeus a very respectful hearing, which he fully deserves, he has a very tall order," Lantos, D-San Mateo, said Wednesday. "Petraeus is an outstanding military leader, there's nothing wrong with Petraeus. The problem is that it is not the job of the American military to participate in and referee a religion-based, bloody civil war.

"What the American military needs is to be rebuilt and to be redeployed out of Iraq," he said.Lantos: Petraeus report won't sway me (http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4176/is_20070831/ai_n19503857)

"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."
-- Tom Lantos in his opening remarks before the Petraeus testimony

Liberal hate speech went on and on, but columns must end. So let us close with the poisonous comments of US Representative Tom Lantos, a California Democrat, who lashed out at independent counsel Don Smaltz (the one prosecuting former agriculture secretary Mike Espy). When Smaltz didn't mention at a committee hearing that he is registered Republican, Lantos hissed: ''You remind me of ... Kurt Waldheim, who also had a lapse in memory. He conveniently forgot several years when he was a Nazi.''

The independent counsel was stunned. The chairman of the Republican National Committee demanded an apology. But Lantos serenely insisted that his horrid comparison was ''totally proper and correct,'' adding: ''If you overlook your involvement in the KKK or the Nazi Party or the Republican Party, you are lying. You are deceitful.''

Perhaps the media and public opinion will mobilize against Lantos's disgusting remarks. But he's a liberal, so don't hold your breath.More Hate Speech From The Left (http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/1997/12/30/more_hate_speech_from_the_left/)

He is a fake, a phony and a complete fraud. He constantly stresses his victimhood: first as a Holocaust survivor in Nazi-run Hungary and then as a refugee when the Communists took power. He fancies himself as the leading human rights specialist on Capitol Hill. In fact, this odious so-called Democrat is a master of deception and propaganda and a wallower in corrupt campaign money.

Meet California Congressman Tom Lantos. The Gollum-like Lantos has launched his latest string of invectives at France, Germany, and Belgium. He said "the failure of these three states to honor their commitments is beneath contempt" and that he is "particularly disgusted by the blind intransigence and utter ingratitude" of America's three NATO allies.

Lantos, who represents California's 12th District (San Mateo), has a history of just plain lying and intimidating others in order to push his sordid agenda.

He once told Clinton White House security chief Craig Livingstone, who was testifying before a House committee on the so-called "Travelgate" matter, that he should think about committing suicide. Lantos, who sounds a lot like Bela Lugosi, told the beleaguered aide, "At least Admiral Boorda had the decency to commit suicide," a reprehensible reference to the tragic suicide of the Chief of Naval Operations.The Lies of Tom Lantos (http://www.counterpunch.org/madsen02152003.html)

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.[27]Tom Lantos (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Lantos)

I don't miss the bastard.

[DesertFox]

Thanks for the info, Doc. I was going to be "big" about it and wish the commie bastard a restful place on the first rung of hell, but now I see that that's just the sort of thing HE wouldn't do; so now I'll shove his ass on down to the 5th or 6th level.

The world is improved when evil people leave it.

[BabyBeastie]

I have to admit that the news of his passing gave me relief.

He was that horrible of a human being. I have a hard time calling him a human. He was a monster.

I wasn't alive when Hitler bought it, but after hearing the news of Tommy's demise, I sorta know what the Jews may have felt on that day.

[Venus de Smilo]

I suppose there is irony in the fact that a speaker of such malicious remarks died of a throat ailment.