They Memorialized Tom Lantos on Valentine's Day; And It Came From The Heart

By Joe Rothstein
Editor, USPolitics.einnews.com

February 14, 2008

It's Valentine's Day and I've just attended a most remarkable romantic event. It took place in one of the least romantic venues you can imagine, the cold marble halls of Congress. The occasion was one not generally associated with romance: a funeral service.

But love was in the air as friends and family said goodbye to veteran California Congressman Tom Lantos who died a few days earlier.

Without musical accompaniment Bono sang John Lennon's song "All You Need Is Love." A room filled with members of Congress and others who live hard-edged lives in domestic and foreign affairs took up the refrain and joined in.

Bono said he was inspired to choose this song because of something Lantos had told him during a visit weeks prior to Lantos' death.

"Love," said Lantos, "can never be defeated."

A simple truth Lantos distilled from a lifetime of fighting tyranny.

A fight that began when Lantos' family was exterminated by the Nazis and he spent much of his youth as a member of the Hungarian underground. Lantos is the only holocaust survivor ever elected to Congress and his memory of deadly oppression drove him to spend his 27 congressional years manning the barricades of human rights to resist tyrannical regimes.

No leader was too powerful to feel the sting of Lantos' wrath. No cause was too small to command his attention. The Chinese over Tibet. The Sudanese government over Darfur. The Russians over their systematic abuses of human rights. The planet was his battleground, particularly after he became chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Lantos had the genes and bearing of an Austro-Hungarian aristocrat. A backbone of steel. A no-nonsense directness. A way of speaking that was at once rich in old world elegance and as persuasive as a Greek oracle.

So many who attended his memorial service loved him for who he was and the causes he pursued.

The Nobel Prize winner Elie Wiesel, a fellow Hungarian holocaust survivor spoke movingly of Lantos. So did UN Secretary General Ban-ki Moon. So did Lantos' wife, Annette. They met as children in Hungary. Both beat the odds and escaped the gas chambers. Senator Joe Biden, tears welling in his eyes, remembered Lantos as his mentor. Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni traveled from Tel Aviv to pay her respects. The rabbi who gave the benediction sobbed recalling that Lantos had kissed him before he died.

These were not idle, obligatory words. Not even from Democratic leaders Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer. Or Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, all of whom spoke of their love for Tom Lantos. Giving canned speeches at memorials and other events is the stock and trade of most politicians. Today's speakers spoke with their hearts.

As a political consultant I worked with Tom Lantos in 1980, the year he captured his House seat from a Republican incumbent. 1980 was a tough year for Democrats. It was the year of the Reagan landslide. Reagan's coattails were particularly strong in California, where Reagan had presided as governor. Only two Democrats in the U.S. defeated incumbent Republicans in contested races in 1980. Tom Lantos was one of them.

He won that race on the sheer force of his commanding personality. To see him and to hear him was to know this was someone extraordinary. A rare combination of will and wisdom.

In Washington, Tom and Annette Lantos moved into a very small apartment near the House of Representatives. He wasn't going to be distracted spending much time going to and from work or socializing. For 27 years he maintained a killer pace that made him a major factor in U.S. foreign policy.

Before the wall came down in eastern Europe he traveled there frequently, building on his Hungarian past to encourage more openness and tolerance in those Soviet-dominated regimes.

Lantos was a familiar visitor to the world's capitals, using his position, his charm and his political skills to build bridges to the hostile----and perspective to the uncertain. Few knew about Lantos' missions or his successes. In foreign affairs, it's often better that way. But the number of foreign officials who attended the memorial service or otherwise sent their respects to the Lantos family gives us some insight into the value of his work.

In his tribute, Senator Biden recalled Lantos telling him that "the veneer of civilization is paper thin." We are constantly on the edge of mankind's violent and brutal past. It takes constant vigilance, Lantos said, to extend and to keep the world a civilized place.

Congressman Christopher Shays of Connecticut suggested that there should be some type of Lantos award for service to the cause of human rights. Something along the lines of Pell grants or Fulbright scholarships for education.

In truth, those who perform extraordinary feats to extend the cause of human worth and justice are working the same side of the street as the uniformed men and women who fight with weapons to preserve what we already have won. A system of grants and awards to encourage outstanding service to the cause of humanity is long overdue.

And associating the name Tom Lantos with it would shine a perpetual light on how one individual with sufficient dedication and persistence can serve the oppressed---wherever they may be.

Or to quote Lantos, tyrants come and go, but "love can never be defeated."

Joe Rothstein, editor of US Politics Today, is a former daily newspaper editor and long-time national political strategist based in Washington, D.C.

See all previous articles by Joe Rothstein here.