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Dr. Thomas Peter “Tom” Lantos (February 1, 1928 – February 11, 2008)[1] was a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives from 1981 until his death, representing California’s 12th congressional district (numbered as the 11th District from 1981-93). The district includes the northern two-thirds of San Mateo County and a small portion of southwest San Francisco.

Lantos had announced in early January that he would not run for reelection in 2008 because of cancer of the esophagus.

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 TBD

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Died February 11, 2008 (aged 80)
Bethesda Naval Medical Center
Born February 1, 1928(1928-02-01)
Budapest, Hungary
Political party Democratic
Spouse Annette Lantos
Residence San Mateo, California
Religion Jewish
Personal and family life
Born as Lantos Tamás Péter 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 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 spoke with a pronounced Hungarian accent.

Lantos considered himself a secular Jew. He was the only Holocaust survivor ever to serve in Congress.[4] 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.

For three decades prior to his service in Congress (1950–1980), 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.

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 (the Mormon church). Annette Lantos is a first cousin of the sisters Zsa Zsa, Eva, and Magda Gabor.[5] Katrina, who married ambassador and former U.S. Representative from New Hampshire’s 2nd congressional district Richard Swett, was a candidate for Congress in New Hampshire, running for the House of Representative in 2002 against Charlie Bass and in 2008 for the U.S. Senate against John Sununu. His daughter Annette is married to Timber Dick, “an independent businessman in Colorado.” [6]

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.[7]

Lantos often brought a small white terrier named Mackó (little bear in Hungarian, pronounced mɒtskoː) 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
Political positions
Lantos was a strong supporter of the Iraq War from the start, but from 2006 onward made increasingly critical statements about 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[8] 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 opposed Social Security privatization efforts. He supported same-sex marriage rights and marijuana for medical use, was a strong proponent of gun control[9] and was adamantly pro-choice.[10]

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.[11] 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.[12][13] 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.
Foreign affairs issues
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[14] — 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.[15]

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, and has spoken at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.[16]
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.[17] “Nurse Nayirah” later turned out to be the daughter of the Kuwaiti ambassador to the United States.[17] 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.”[17]

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.[18] MacArthur suggested that Lantos may have materially benefited from his having accommodated Nayirah.[19] 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.[19]
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 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 Mr. Lantos after his — and the President’s — victory.[20] 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.

Starting in early 2006, Mr. 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.”
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.[21]
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.
Retirement
On January 2, 2008, Lantos announced he would not run for a 15th term in the House due to his cancer diagnosis. However, he had 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.” [22] [23]

Lantos had endorsed former State Senator Jackie Speier in the primary.[24]
Congressional scorecards
See also

Biography, voting record, and interest group ratings at Project Vote Smart
Project Vote Smart provides the following results from congressional scorecards.[25]

American Civil Liberties Union – 91% for 2005–2006
Americans for Democratic Action – 100% for 2006
American Land Rights Association – 9% for 2006
Americans for Tax Reform – 0% for 2006
AFL-CIO – 100% in 2006
Campaign for America’s Future – 100% for 2005-2006
Conservative Index-John Birch Society – 11% for Fall 2004
Children’s Defense Fund – 100% for 2006
Drug Policy Alliance – 83% for 2006
Drum Major Institute – 100% for 2005
Family Research Council – 0% for 2006
FreedomWorks – 0% for 2006
Gun Owners of America – 0% for 2006
Humane Society of the United States – 100% for 2005-2006
League of Conservation Voters – 92% for 2006
NARAL Pro-Choice America – 100% for 2006
National Association of Wheat Growers – 37% for 2005
National Education Association – 100% for 2005-2006
National Federation of Independent Business – 14% for 2005-2006
National Journal – Composite liberal score of 86.2% for 2006
National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws – 20 for 2006
National Organization for Women – 95% for 2005-2006
National Rifle Association – F for 2006
National Right to Life Committee – 0% for 2005-2006
National Taxpayers Union – 10% for 2006
Population Connection – 100% for 2006
Republican Liberty Caucus – 16% for 2005
Secular Coalition for America – 70% on 2006 scorecards[26]
United States Chamber of Commerce – 33% for 2006

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.[27]

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.[citation needed]

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.” [28] He later denied saying this, but Avital confirmed it. [29]

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.[30]

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.

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Tom Lantos, a Hungarian born-Holocaust survivor, outspoken global human rights advocate and veteran Democratic foreign affairs expert, died Monday, a month after announcing he had cancer.

California representative Lantos, who had just turned 80, was surrounded by his family when he died Monday morning in Bethesda naval hospital north of Washington, his spokeswoman Lynne Weil said.

He died from complications of cancer of the esophagus, which he said last month would force his retirement from the House of Representatives, where he had served since being elected in 1980 and latterly chaired the chamber’s Foreign Affairs committee.

When he announced his diagnosis, Lantos, expressed his “profoundly felt gratitude to this great country.”

“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.

Tributes quickly poured in for Lantos, from across the political aisle.

President George W. Bush hailed him as a “champion” of human rights.

“As the only Holocaust survivor to serve in Congress, Tom was a living reminder that we must never turn a blind eye to the suffering of the innocent at the hands of evil men,” Bush said in a statement issued from the White House, where flags were lowered to half-staff.

Hillary and Bill Clinton remembered the “courageous and improbable journey” of Lantos’s life.

“Tom bore witness to the worst of human cruelty and devoted his life to stopping it,” the Clintons said in a statement.

Clinton’s Democratic White House rival Barack Obama honored Lantos’s “truly extraordinary life” in which he “never wavered in his defense of freedom and opposition to tyranny.”

House speaker Nancy Pelosi said the veteran congressman’s passing was a “terrible loss” while the top Republican on the Foreign Affairs committee Ileana Ros-Lehtinen described Lantos as an “unfailingly gracious and courageous man.”

Born in Budapest to a Jewish family in February 1928, Lantos was 16 when Nazi Germany occupied Hungary. As a teenager, he was a member of the anti-Nazi resistance, and later of the anti-Communist student movement.

After the Soviets invaded Hungary, he discovered that most of his family had died in the Holocaust. By 1947, he was in the United States on an academic scholarship and became an economics professor in San Francisco.

Since the Democrats regained control of Congress in 2006 elections, Lantos has used his committee to launch strident appeals for greater US action on human rights in China, Darfur, Myanmar and Russia.

Under his stewardship, the committee voted in October to describe the mass slaughter of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire as “genocide” — plunging US relations with Turkey into crisis.

Lantos had also emerged as a fierce critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, and warned last June “Russia’s tactics under the KGB colonel now in charge of the Kremlin threaten to send the country back to its authoritarian past.”

Tom Lantos dies

Rep. Tom Lantos, a California Democrat who chaired the House Foreign Affairs Committee, died early Monday morning after a bout with esophageal cancer, according to a release by his office.  He was 80.

Lantos, the only Holocaust survivor to serve in Congress, died at Bethesda Naval Medical Center, according to the release.

Lantos disclosed last month that he had been diagnosed with cancer of the esophagus and would not seek another term in the House.
Governor Dean issued the following statement:

Our nation has lost a great public servant with the passing of Representative Tom Lantos. In serving his constituents and his country, Tom never forgot the Democratic Party’s ideals of freedom, fairness, and opportunity for all. As Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, he was an authority on foreign policy issues and a voice for the oppressed. The only Holocaust survivor in Congress, he was a forceful and passionate advocate for civil liberties and human rights. Today, I join with countless others across the country in offering my thoughts and prayers to Rep. Lantos’ family and friends as we honor his life and legacy.
And from a statement on Lantos’ House website:

Throughout his adult life Lantos sought to be a voice for human rights and civil liberties. He and Annette Lantos, his childhood sweetheart and wife of nearly 58 years were, as Lantos put it, “full partners both in Congress and in life,” and they continued their work right up to his final days. Tom Lantos was the founding co-chairman of the 24-year-old Congressional Human Rights Caucus, which Annette directed as a volunteer since its inception. He also founded the Congressional Friends of Animals Caucus.
Annette said that her husband’s life was “defined by courage, optimism, and unwavering dedication to his principles and to his family.”