I'd always wondered what the story was with California Democratic Congressman Tom Lantos. Don't get me wrong, I love the guy. He's virulently anti-war and regularly lowers the rhetorical boom on Dubya and the neocon yahoos that got us into the global mess in which we find ourselves. I just never knew the back story on this dignified, white-haired, Bay Area octogenarian with the vaguely eastern European accent. Looks like that xenophobic, under-informed idiot Rush Limbaugh was wondering the same things:
Limbaugh on Tom Lantos:
"I look at Lantos telling [Gen. Petraeus] that his strategy of withdrawing a brigade is nothing, and I want to ask myself, where is the military expertise of Tom Lantos? Who is advising him? Has he been there? How long ago?"
Who the HELL is Tom Lantos? Oh, he's led a fairly ordinary life:
Born the only child of upper-middle class Jewish parents in Budapest in 1928, Lantos grew up during a time when Hungary was slowly being taken over by the Nazis. When he was 10 years old, he bought his first newspaper--an experience he vividly recalls today. The headline read, "Hitler Marches into Austria."
"I sensed that this historic moment would have a tremendous impact on the lives of Hungarian Jews, my family and myself," he says. If only he knew.
When he was 16, German troops invaded his homeland--and along with them came Adolf Eichmann, with orders to exterminate the Jewish population of Hungary. By the end of the summer of 1944, most of the Jews outside of Budapest had been sent to Auschwitz.
Read the rest here, you'll never wonder about Tom Lantos' gravitas, nor his right to speak truth to power, ever again.
What's your story Rush?
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