Lantos Announces Cancer Diagnosis, Retirement From The House
Rep. Tom Lantos (D-CA), the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee as well as the only Holocaust survivor to ever serve in Congress, has announced that he is retiring. The 79-year old Lantos cited a serious health problem as the cause of his announcement — he has been diagnosed with cancer of the esophagus.
"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," Lantos said in a press release. "I will never be able to express fully my profoundly felt gratitude to this great country."
Comments (15)
Richard L. Adlof wrote on January 2, 2008 1:41 PM:Prayrs for healing will be said tonight.
Greg DeLassus wrote on January 2, 2008 1:46 PM:A sad story. He will be missed.
Jack Cohen wrote on January 2, 2008 2:16 PM:What a horrible warmonger he was. I sure won't miss him but I wish him a long healthy retirement.
Samuel Samson wrote on January 2, 2008 2:43 PM:I wish him good health and a long retirement. On the other hand, I hope this give us a chance to get someone who is more progressive in their ways of thinking. I also feel that his # 1 concern is Isreal rather than the US of A.
Terje wrote on January 2, 2008 2:44 PM:Sad news for a devoted public servant.
While Rep. Lantos has been disappointing recently in his support for some of Bush's war positions, his service in Congress will be much more remembered for his important focus on human rights. He is a powerful voice standing against human rights violations around the world. His life experience (the only Holocaust survivor to ever serve in Congress) allows him to speak with authority on these issues. His leadership on America's role in global human rights will be sorely missed.
(On a political level, this will finally provide the opportunity that former Assemblywoman Jackie Speier has been looking for to run for this seat... question is how many others will also run to replace Lantos.)
I wish him and his family well in dealing with his illness.
His retirement from congress, however, makes my day, and I hope it includes an immediate end to any political influence he might otherwise have retained. His politics in conjunction with that of the Zionist lobby have been despicable, all the more sadly so because it has been an example of the unwillingness of a victim (him) to rise above terrible cruelties inflicted on him (the holocaust), and proceed instead to help inflict terrible cruelties on the primary, but by no means the sole, victims of Zionism: Palestinians.
Mike Lieberman wrote on January 2, 2008 2:58 PM:Today the U.S. and the world lose a lion of courage and conviction. Lantos never lost sight of America's unique responsibilities in this world to combat extremism, hatred and fear and worked -- far more than so-called "progressive" members of the Congress -- to actually advance, and not just trumpet, those values. He deserves honor and praise, and he will be missed.
Alan Schwartz wrote on January 2, 2008 3:07 PM:I always thought he was a fraud. A Holocaust survivor whose first loyalty was to Israel but whose wife, children, and grandchildren are devout Mormons.
I am glad he won't be in the next Congress.
I hope he recovers although the American soldiers who died in wars he pushed so hard for will not.
Best Lantos moment. A few years ago, I was at a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing when Lantos made the entire room stand in honor of an Israeli soldier who was killed in action.
Everyone stood.
Needless to say, Congressional hearings don't rise in honor of dead American troops nor did Lantos ever suggest they should.
He was a loathsome character.
Maybe Lantos could get Spielberg to do a movie on the attack on the USS Liberty.
john d wrote on January 2, 2008 4:01 PM:Finally. This is the same man who told a member of Israel's Knesset before the Iraq invasion, "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."
Jackie Spear, you're on, ma'am.
John Murphy wrote on January 2, 2008 7:52 PM:Good Riddance. No we can get someone who is not a jingo.
JM
Glen Tomkins wrote on January 2, 2008 10:42 PM:Not like breast or prostate cancer
Esophageal cancer is one of the worst prognosis, least treatable, cancers left. Unless his is one of the rare esophageal cancers caught incidentally on a scope for something else, he is not going to recover, and he's not going to have the long retirement some here have wished him. I disagreed with the Congressman's politics as much as anyone, but I think that this diagnosis, and his resignation, have already taken him beyond the political arena. I have nothing left for the man but my prayers.
the exile wrote on January 2, 2008 11:54 PM:I hope for the best for Lantos as a human being, too, but democrats like him have enabled the Republicans for decades. It's not recent. I remember lobbying his office to get him to vote right on Central America in the days of Reagan. No luck. Wishy-washy dems like him made Iran-Contra happen. His district is reliably democratic, suburbs south of San Francisco, lots of hispanics and lots of rich liberals, a minority of typical california suburban republicans. Berkeley the district isn't, but still we can elect a real Democrat there for once.
