Jan 3, 2008

Lantos to step down

Congressman diagnosed with cancer

By Will Oremus / Daily News Staff Writer

Longtime U.S. Rep. Tom Lantos announced Wednesday he has been diagnosed with cancer of the esophagus.

The 79-year-old Democrat from San Mateo intends to finish his 14th two-year term while undergoing treatment but will retire at the end of 2008.

The only Holocaust survivor to serve in Congress, Lantos used his seat as a pulpit from which to launch impassioned defenses of human rights around the world. Though he weathered criticism for his initial support of the Iraq war, his national stature reached new heights early last year when he was named chair of the House Committee Foreign Affairs.

Lantos represents District 12, which encompasses parts of San Mateo County and San Francisco. Locally, he secured hundreds of millions of federal dollars for transportation infrastructure projects, including BART's San Francisco Airport extension and Devil's Slide tunnel project.

Routine medical tests revealed the cancer in late December, and Lantos decided "in the last few days" that this term would be his last in Congress, spokeswoman Lynne Weil said.

In a statement Wednesday, the Hungarian-born Lantos professed "profoundly felt gratitude" to his adoptive 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," Lantos said.

At his home in Washington, D.C., Lantos busied himself preparing for the new session of Congress as praise and support flowed in from local and state leaders.

"This is tragic news," said San Mateo County Supervisor Jerry Hill. "He's contributed a tremendous amount to this county and to the United States."

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, said Lantos would be "deeply missed" by his colleagues. She called him a leading American expert on foreign affairs and one of the most effective advocates for human rights at home and abroad.



Surviving WWII

After escaping a Nazi forced-labor camp in his native Budapest, Lantos came to the United States in 1947. He received a Ph.D. in economics from UC-Berkeley, married childhood sweetheart Annette Tillemann, and became an economics professor and adviser to U.S. senators.

In 1980, Lantos narrowly ousted incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. Bill Royer for the seat previously held by Democrat Leo J. Ryan, who was killed in Jonestown, Guyana, in 1978.

One of his first acts was to sponsor legislation honoring Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat who had helped him and countless other Hungarian Jews escape the Nazi work camp.

Over 27 years, Lantos gained respect in Washington for combining a deep commitment to human rights - he was a founder of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus - with an expert's knowledge of foreign affairs.

His biography gave him impeccable credentials when he assailed the rights records of left-wing and right-wing governments. He voted for the use of force against Iraq in 2002, but has since become a harsh critic of the war and held 13 full hearings on the subject last year.

"In just one year, we have reinvigorated the constitutionally mandated oversight role of Congress, which has been all but absent for far too long," Lantos said last month.

But Lantos has also maintained good relations with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, a close friend. And he has worked closely with Republicans on the committee to try to fashion a bipartisan approach to some issues, from nuclear proliferation to Darfur.

Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a conservative Republican from Miami, disagreed with Lantos on Bush administration policy but also found him an ally on human rights causes.

"Tom is a man of enormous integrity, energy and substance, whose deepest convictions were born in epic struggles against tyranny, fascism and genocide," Ros-Lehtinen said.

Lantos is especially close to Pelosi, and defended her during a trip to Syria last April when critics said she was undermining Bush policy.



Foreign Affairs committee service

In his first year as chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Lantos was instrumental in getting the House to approve a controversial resolution urging the Japanese government to officially apologize for the brutal treatment of thousands of women held as sex slaves during World War II.

He also held a hearing to castigate Yahoo executives for their company's decision to turn over user data to the Chinese government that led to the imprisonment of a dissident. "Morally you are pygmies," Lantos told them.

That remark did not surprise longtime observers of Lantos. Known for his courtly, old-world demeanor, he can also be blunt when it serves him.

In an interview last year he condemned the leaders of Iran, Venezuela and Russia this way: "What makes those bastards something to contend with is the oil flowing in. Without the oil, they'd be irrelevant puppets."

Lantos had leeway to focus on far-flung conflicts in part because of the solidity of his Democratic seat. He trounced his Republican opponents election after election, beating Mike Moloney in 2006 with 76 percent of the vote.



A focus on District 12

He also scored points with his constituents by helping to bring in $750 million in federal funding to extend BART to Millbrae and the San Francisco International Airport, a project completed in 2003. He secured another $150 million in 2005 for a tunnel on Highway 1 at Devil's Slide.

Lantos also prided himself on environmental preservation, helping to pass several laws that gradually expanded the Golden Gate National Recreational Area.

Still, Lantos has occasionally faced charges that he shortchanged local issues in his zest for foreign policy. Some liberal Democrats and Republicans also homed in on his initial support for the war in Iraq.

Before he announced he would resign, his run of easy electoral victories appeared in jeopardy. Word came in December that former state Sen. Jackie Speier had formed an exploratory committee to challenge him in the June Democratic Primary.

Spokeswoman Lynne Weil said Lantos' history of physical fitness puts him in good stead as he prepares to battle cancer. He's considering a combination of chemotherapy and radiation but is still consulting with doctors.

"He fully expects to complete the full term of the 110th Congress," which ends a year from today, Weil said.

Meanwhile, his voice on local and national issues continues to ring with characteristic conviction. On Dec. 27, Lantos decried the attack that killed former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and said it should "compel the United States to renew our commitment to the people of Pakistan and to the voices of moderation."



MediaNews reporter Frank Davies contributed to this report.



E-mail Will Oremus at woremus@dailynewsgroup.com.