Congress lost someone with a vastly experienced perspective on human rights to esophageal cancer.
Lantos, who referred to himself as "an American by choice," was born to Jewish parents in Budapest, Hungary, and was 16 when Adolf Hitler occupied Hungary in 1944. He survived by escaping twice from a forced labor camp and coming under the protection of Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat who used his official status and visa-issuing powers to save thousands of Hungarian Jews.
Lantos' mother and much of his family perished in the Holocaust.
That background gave Lantos a moral authority unique in Congress and he used it repeatedly to speak out on foreign policy issues, sometimes courting controversy. He was a strong supporter of Israel and a lead advocate for the 2002 congressional resolution authorizing the Iraq war, though he would come to be a strong critic of the Bush administration's strategy there. In 2006 Lantos was one of five members of Congress arrested in a protest outside the Sudanese Embassy over the genocide in Darfur.
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His scorecard from Wikipedia speaks volumes - especially that number from the FRC.
- 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
- United States Chamber of Commerce – 33% for 2006
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