Ileana Ros-Lehtinen flashback to 1989 - WTVJ-TV video: Ros-Lehtinen wins Special Election to succeed late Rep. Claude Pepper and makes history

Wolfson Archive YouTube Channel video: On what was a Special Election night in August of 1989, WTVJ reporter Ileana Bravo reports on the historic occasion of Florida state Senator Ileana Ros-Lehtinen winning a bruising election for the then-Miami Beach based congressional seat of Claude Pepper, who had died on May 30th at the age of 88, the oldest menber of Congress. She became the first Cuban-American ever elected to Congress and first Hispanic woman elected to the U.S. House. Uploaded July 11, 2013. http://youtu.be/jeC0ZwuB4e0

Future Florida governor Jeb Bush is rather obvious in the news clip, but who else do you recognize? (Suggested title in my YouTube inbox was "Happy Birthday, Madame Congresswoman!" due to her upcoming birthday on July 15th.) 

The other irony of this night, apparent to folks like me who grew-up in South Florida -but then living and working in Washington, D.C., and who knew people on Pepper's staff on The Hill- was that for many campaign cycles in the 1970's, the Republican who ran against longtime incumbent and Democratic icon Pepper was a Cuban-American businessman named Evelio Estrella, who was perhaps most noteworthy for refusing to do any campaigning in English in what was then FL-14, to the great astonishment of nearly everyone who was not Cuban-American, including the local and national news media.

Okay, so that happens once, you think.

Maybe there are no good candidates available and you have to field someone, even if a sacrificial lamb.

But Estrella ran enthusiastically several times!

Now THAT was Miami in the '70's!

Ros-Lehtinen is the current Chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, just as the late Dante Fascell was, who represented Miami in Congress and whose CD extended south down to Key West.

I saw much of him over the years after I first moved to Washington in 1988 and became a regular presence at the full committee hearings as well as the European Subcommittee ones in the Rayburn Building, becoming very friendly with several members and the professional staff.

(Sometimes I'd even have lunch back with some friends there in the TV room while they watched either CNN or soap operas.)

That lasted until the GOP takeover in 1994, at which point Lee Hamilton had already succeeded Facell as Chair after he retired and didn't seek re-election in November of 1993.

As I've mentioned previously here on the blog, at various points while I was at IU, Lee Hamilton had been my congressman in Bloomington.

Fact-checking the Miami Herald's local coverage of the "fiscal cliff" budget issue shows their obliviousness; Charles Krauthammer ponders "Cliff-jumping with Barack"; I suggest everyone check their ropes now!

Louisthx YouTube Channel video: Countdown clock for an NBC News Special Report. Uploaded on July 27, 2007. http://youtu.be/41sQCLKpi78 

Since I don't have my own Breaking News countdown clock yet... 

Question: How many of South Florida's 8 present or future Members of Congress have been interviewed or quoted by the Miami Herald regarding the "fiscal cliff" federal budget issue since Election Day?

Answer: ZERO.

But we all know that this would hardly come as Breaking News to any well-informed person who reads the 2012 version of that newspaper, though they still might be surprised that the Herald could do such a poor job of following a big national story by not writing about the local angle, i.e. have meaningful reporting on what this area's elected representatives to Congress were inclined to do.

The Herald of the 1970's and 1980's would've not only done something, they'd have had an entire page about it in Section A or in their Sunday Op-Ed section, with each rep. having the opportunity to try to explain -in some cases, explain away- why they believed what they did.

Not the lackluster and lazy Herald of today against the worldwide talent and resources of the N.Y. Times of today, but rather than the lackluster Herald of today against the Herald of 25 and 35 years ago that had to make do without cell phones and the crutch of the Internet, but with hard-working reporters who wanted to get the story done right, NOT run away from it.
There's your compare and contrast.

To repeat what I've written here on the blog in the past, when I lived and worked in the Washington, D.C. area from 1988-2003, because of what I did, whom I knew and what the full array of my interests were, I spoke fairly often to some print/TV reporters and columnists based in the Beltway whom you've heard of. 
We talked about all sorts of things, of course, but among them were also the general state of journalism, trends in the industry and general industry gossip.

Sometimes that took place over the phone after some bit of Breaking News, or over an Orioles game up at Camden Yards, sometimes after movies at popular restaurants, 
Other conversations took place over a hot dog and Coke from a vendor at a nearby park at lunch time -McPherson Square- on one of those sunny Spring days in Washington that are amazing, and which pull everyone out of their offices after months of cold weather, a sure sign that the baseball season is approaching.

The fact that some of these people had earned Pulitzer Prizes for their hard work and resourcefulness and had become known "names," was not something they spoke about, per se, but because they were so recognizable, it was always something in the back of my mind, even when we pretended it wasn't.

So it's with that in mind that I can tell you this with absolute certainty.

Newspapers and reporters do NOT receive the Pulitzer Prize for making a very bad habit of habitually ignoring what's right in front of them and NOT asking hard questions of elected officials facing difficult choices.

People are elected to Washington to make tough choices, after all, and reporters are supposed to ask them how they made their choice and what it is.

That's their job.

And yet...

Which of the 80 federal entitlement programs does Frederica Wilson or Joe Garcia want to seriously reform in order to avoid the fiscal cliff?

http://www.nationaljournal.com/blogs/influencealley/2012/11/boehner-calls-fiscal-cliff-progress-disappointing--29

To repeat Charles Krauthammer in his Washington Post column titled, Cliff-jumping with Barack:

Where are the spending cuts, both discretionary and entitlement: Medicare, Medicaid and now Obamacare (the health-care trio) and Social Security?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/charles-krauthammer-cliff-jumping-with-barack/2012/11/29/6ddd39f8-3a5f-11e2-8a97-363b0f9a0ab3_story.html

I can't tell you that now because the very people in the best position to actually find out, the South Florida news media, don't want to ask, in large part I suspect because they really don't care. But I do.

If only I could bolster my argument by linking to a single example of this. 
Oh, okay, here are eight examples of that media obliviousness, courtesy(!) of the McClatchy Company's Miami Herald.

Is that enough for you?

FL-17 Frederica Wilson

http://www.miamiherald.com/search_results?aff=1100&q=Frederica+Wilson

FL-18 Ileana Ros-Lehtinen

http://www.miamiherald.com/search_results?aff=1100&q=Ileana+Ros-Lehtinen

FL-19 Ted Deutch

http://www.miamiherald.com/search_results?aff=1100&q=Ted+Deutch

FL-20 Debbie Wasserman Schultz

http://www.miamiherald.com/search_results?aff=1100&q=Debbie+Wasserman+Schultz+

FL-21 Mario Diaz-Balart

http://www.miamiherald.com/search_results?aff=1100&q=Mario+Diaz-Balart

FL-22 Congressman-Elect Patrick Murphy

http://www.miamiherald.com/search_results?aff=1100&q=Patrick+Murphy

FL-23 Alcee Hastings

http://www.miamiherald.com/search_results?aff=1100&q=%22Alcee+Hastings%22

Bonus:  http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/news/politics/broward/blog/2012/05/alcee_hastings_complains_about.html

FL-25 Congressman-Elect Joe Garcia

http://www.miamiherald.com/search_results?aff=1100&q=Joe+Garcia

Marco Rubio is doing EXACTLY what he said he'd do last year -making a difference on policy in D.C. and NOT being an aloof, empty suit

ABC News video: Sen. Marco Rubio on ABC News' Nightline with correspondent Jonathan Karl, March 28, 2011.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqs0WAD7ZRE

Article: Exclusive Interview With Marco Rubio: GOP Rising Star Hints at VP Spot. Florida Republican Keeps a Low Profile as a Junior Senator, But Has Big Plans
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/tea-party-favorite-florida-sen-marco-rubios-national/story?id=13249824
http://abcnews.go.com/nightline




ABC News video: Sen. Marco Rubio appears on GMA, Good Morning America, with host George Stephanopoulos, March 30, 2011
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAI4x-jI-_k




Local10.com video: Sen. Marco Rubio speaks with Channel 10's Michael Putney on his Sunday morning TV show, This Week in South Florida, about the federal budget gimmicks currently in place, i.e. continuing resolutions
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iGaPvq16Zo




Sen. Marco Rubio video: In His Own Words: Week In Review, March 11, 2011
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xOMt0fFBAA




NBC-6 Miami news video: Report on Sen. Marco Rubio's Miami office Open House.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMnMiP2QnB8

-----
Michael Putney: http://www.local10.com/station/269244/detail.html

This Week In South Florida March 27

U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen speaks about Libya, new troubles between Israel and Palestine and the conviction of an aid worker in Cuba. Plus, what are the Miami-Dade County charter changes that will be on the May ballot?

Video at: http://www.local10.com/video/27347033/index.html

http://www.local10.com/index.html

http://www.sfltv.com/

Failed hit piece in 12/23/09 LA Times on Ileana by a hipper-than-thou Iranian regime apologist; WaPo's Robin Wright is correct about Iran

December 23rd, 2009

I'm neither a fan or opponent of Rep. Ileana
Ros-Lehtinen, per se, but I know a hit piece
when I see one.

You know everything you need to know about
the essay below that appeared in Wednesday's
LA Times when you discover that author
Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich's "associated" with
some group called Campaign Against Sanctions
and Military Intervention in Iran (CASMII),
http://www.campaigniran.org/CASMII/index.php?q=node

So why is that NOT mentioned at the bottom of the
LA Times Guest Op-Ed, when a quick five-second
Google Search tells you that?
You know, since it actually has something
to do with the subject of the essay, sanctions?

Just more proof, as if needed, that the LA Times
isn't nearly what it used to be when I read their
great D.C. edition almost daily in the '90's, which
was nothing but news articles, opinions and essays,
with no ads -for a dollar.

It was fantastic for news junkies readers, even if it
was a loss-leader for Times-Mirror in their efforts
to have more influence in official Washington.
(I had a couple of friends in their DC bureau,
above the Farragut West Metro station.)
Their separate Foreign Policy section on Tuesdays,
usually with something insightful and original by
then-foreign affairs correspondent Robin Wright,
now at the Washington Post, was always
MUST READING for me and my friends
interested in foreign policy and strategy.

See also: http://robinwrightblog.blogspot.com/
http://www.robinwright.net/ and
http://www.usip.org/resources/irans-green-movement

Her latest column in the WaPo, on her being
underwhelmed by Obama's West Point speech,
was this one from Dec. 10th appropriately titled
The real stakes in Afghanistan
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/09/AR2009120903678.html

That column includes the following about Iran:

Obama's strategy will deeply affect India, the world's largest democracy. Long-standing tensions between Pakistan and India have taken the world closer to the brink of nuclear war than any conflict has since World War II -- and still could, since Pakistan has failed to contain extremists responsible for terrorist atrocities in India, including the Mumbai attacks last year. U.S. failure to help nuclear Pakistan expand or shift its military focus from India to the more immediate threat from its internal extremists risks allowing those tensions to deepen.

Just as worrisome are the stakes with Iran, which borders both Pakistan and Afghanistan. Afghanistan has become for Iran what Iraq once was: a surrogate battlefield with the United States. Once Afghanistan's rival, Shiite-dominated Iran has reportedly supplied the same weapons and explosives to Sunni Taliban fighters that it provided Shiite militias in Iraq, on the principle that the enemy of my enemy is my friend -- at least for now.

Iran manipulated (and often fueled) the problems that ensued after the U.S. invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. In the process, it has become a regional superpower rivaled only by Israel. U.S. failures in Afghanistan and Pakistan would further strengthen Iran's position as its increasingly authoritarian government cracks down on a legitimate opposition movement and threatens to expand its nuclear program.

Since those of you who have always lived
in South Florida or the East Coast may not
be too familiar with it, that the Times Op-Ed
author is a grad of the USC Annenberg
School for Communication is nothing
to be impressed by, esp. if you've ever met
some of the grads I met in D.C.

It's no SAIS, that's for sure,
http://www.sais-jhu.edu/ which is apparent if
you've ever met some of the Annenberg
grads in Washington that I have, who seemed
to specialize in sounding-off at public policy
forums, bars and coffee shops by repeating
things smarter people once said and wrote.
And getting it wrong.

Remember that pompous ass of a Harvard
grad student that Matt Damon's character
in Good Will Hunting made mincemeat of
in his verbal barrage in the bar, about the
evolution of the 18th Century market economy
in the Southern Colonies?

If you forgot it, it's here:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4PiVMasO6s
http://www.moviemistakes.com/film555/quotes

That's what I'm talking about!

(Somewhat unexpectedly, I actually had to play
the Matt Damon role a few times while I lived
in the D.C. area in order to put some Ivy-Ivy
wannbe grads who thought they were all that,
in their place.
That usually involved both politics, history and,
shocker, sports.)

Characterized by a real lack of intellectual honesty
and heft to say the least, regardless of what they
-or their anxious parents- paid for USC tuition.

Growing-up in South Florida in the '70's, I often
marched with my Iranian friends and their families
in the late '70's in anti-Shah rallies near the
Freedom Torch on Biscayne Blvd.
-back before that had been thoroughly rendered
into a tired South Florida media cliche, like the
Versailles Restaurant- and we were positive
that there were Savak agents taking photos of
everyone, since they were a little too obvious and
we could sometimes hear the cameras whirring.

That's why my friends and their relatives
wore masks.

Many of my friends' parents and relatives had
been unlawfully imprisoned by the Shah, and
had the permanent scars and injuries to
prove it.

Iran as a modern, secular democratic country
wasn't an abstract idea to them, certainly not
the same way it seems to have been for so many
of the apologists of the Shah, or the current crew
of well-dressed apologists who shop at
The Beverly Center in LA.

I realize that my circumstances are unique
in that I know a LOT more about Iran
and its people and history than the average
American, have many friends who have
Iranian-born spouses, so when I come
across this sort of agitprop in the LA Times,
an intellectually dishonest effort that will
hurt not help the likelihood of that secular
democratic Iran from ever coming into
being, you understand that I really don't
need to hear yet another round of verbal
intellectual gymnastics from the newest hip
crowd of Iranian regime apologists wearing
Ann Taylor.

Sometimes, things are exactly what they
appear to be.

Just saying...

--------
Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/opinionla/la-oew-ulrich23-2009dec23,0,1257966.story Blowback

The hypocrisy of American bluster toward Iran

A U.S. representative who accused Tehran of sponsoring terrorism has a track record of supporting terrorists herself.

By Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich

December 23, 2009

By now there is little doubt that hypocrisy has become Washington's standing policy on foreign affairs. What is astounding is the lack of shame in such overt duplicity as Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen's (R-Fla.) accusations in the Dec. 14 Times Op-Ed article that Iran is a state sponsor of terrorists -- when she herself has a track record of supporting terrorists.

In February 1988, Orlando Bosch was arrested in Miami and implicated in the 1976 plot to blow up Cubana Flight 455, a terrorist act that killed 73 passengers. Joe D. Whitley, the associate U.S. attorney general at the time, called Bosch "a terrorist, unfettered by laws or human decency, threatening and inflicting violence without regard to the identity of his victims." Bosch, however, had the distinct advantage of having Ros-Lehtinen make advocating for his release one of the cornerstones of her 1989 congressional campaign. Bosch had another advantage: Ros-Lehtinen's campaign manager was Jeb Bush, President George H.W. Bush's son. In 1990, after lobbying by Jeb Bush and Ros-Lehtinen, the Bush administration went against the Justice Department's recommendation to deport Bosch and authorized his release. Since then, Bosch has become a permanent resident of the United States.

Ros-Lehtinen also supports the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), a group by the State Department as a foreign terrorist group. Leading up to the Iraq war, in October 2002, Ros-Lehtinen circulated a letter in Congress expressing support for the MEK. She continues her support.

Common sense dictates that Iran would want security in its two neighboring countries given the spillover effect. By now, it is also common knowledge that the Sunni Taliban and Shiite Iran have been hostile toward each other for years (several Iranian diplomats were killed by the Taliban in 1998), and no doubt this hostility led to Iran's decision to assist the Northern Alliance and the U.S. in efforts in the overthrow of the Taliban after the 9/11 attacks -- efforts that were rewarded with the infamous "axis of evil" brand. Yet Ros-Lehtinen would insult the American public's intelligence by telling them that Iran, without mentioning any history, has a hand in Afghanistan. Does Ros-Lehtinen ever wonder if other countries simply do not welcome occupation by any foreign force?

One has to question what motivates Ros-Lehtinen in her push to put financial sanctions on foreign and domestic companies that sell refined petroleum products to Iran. Doing so could lead to more job losses in America and more hostilities between U.S. allies and Iran. This is a time when our policy makers should be thinking about America and Americans, period.

Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich is an independent researcher and writer living in Glendale.

----------------
Meanwhile...closer to home

http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/story/1385736.html-
December 17th, 2009 Miami Herald Editorial

Getting serious with Iran -

OUR OPINION:

Stronger sanctions needed to persuade regime to drop nuclear-weapons program

It should be clear by now that Iran is on a collision course with the United States and other Western nations over its quest for nuclear weapons.
Years of diplomatic engagement, proposed deals and three rounds of sanctions by the United Nations have failed to deter Iran from getting closer to acquiring the capacity to produce nukes.

Indeed, the government of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has grown more defiant.
In the last few weeks, it has dropped all pretense of wanting to work with U.N. inspectors and Western nations, angrily refusing to comply with a U.N. demand to cease work on a nuclear-fuel enrichment plant and vowing to construct 10 more plants as soon as it can.
The latest bad news involves reports that Iran is getting closer to solving the most difficult aspects of making nuclear weapons.
The Times of London reported that Iran appears to be working on a ''neutron initiator,'' a device that could trigger an explosion in a nuclear warhead.
This means Iran is becoming self-sufficient in nuclear weapons technology and has no intention of putting an end to its clandestine weapons program.
Since the West can clearly not do business with this regime, it is time to get serious about sanctions.
Earlier this week, the House of Representatives by an overwhelming margin (412-12) approved a measure that dramatically increases the economic pressure on Iran by curtailing its ability to import refined products, such as gasoline.
Its key provision requires the president to impose sanctions on any company here or abroad that helps to supply Iran with refined petroleum.
Because Iran relies on imports for 40 percent of its refined petroleum, this would oblige the regime to consider the consequences of its continued defiance of the international community.
The effort was led by U.S. Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif., House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman, and U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Miami, the ranking minority member of the panel. As a rule, multilateral sanctions are far preferable to unilateral moves, but it's hard to blame the House for deciding to take action.
Iran has a long record of deviousness and duplicity and the clock is ticking toward the day when it will become a nuclear power unless its leaders become convinced that the nations arrayed against it have finally lost all patience. The Obama administration has shown little enthusiasm for Congress' action, but it is working on its own set of sanctions, which officials hope will gain international support.
Both Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have said in recent days that a broader package of sanctions is in the works.
As described by Mr. Gates, the point would be ''to persuade the Iranian government that they would actually be less secure with nuclear weapons'' because ''their people will suffer enormously'' from sanctions.
Clearly, the time has come to take such measures.

Reader comments at:
http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/story/1385736.html?commentSort=TimeStampAscending&pageNum=1

Staffer Salaries for Sens. Bill Nelson & Mel Martinez and South Florida Congressmen

2008 Salary staffer information courtesy of Legistorm, http://www.legistorm.com

Sen. Bill Nelson

http://www.legistorm.com/member/75/Sen_Bill_Nelson.html

Sen. Mel Martinez

http://www.legistorm.com/member/68/Sen_Mel_Martinez.html

17

http://www.legistorm.com/member/371/Rep_Kendrick_Meek.html

18

http://www.legistorm.com/member/446/Rep_Ileana_Ros_Lehtinen.html

19

http://www.legistorm.com/member/531/Rep_Robert_Wexler.html

20

http://www.legistorm.com/member/521/Rep_Debbie_Wasserman_Schultz.html

21

http://www.legistorm.com/member/206/Rep_Lincoln_Diaz_Balart.html

22

http://www.legistorm.com/member/848/Rep_Ron_Klein.html

23

http://www.legistorm.com/member/269/Rep_Alcee_Hastings.html

25

http://www.legistorm.com/member/207/Rep_Mario_Diaz_Balart.html

If you don't already have them on your list of Favorites, consider adding Legistorm at http://www.legistorm.com/

and the Center for Responsive Politics website, http://www.opensecrets.org/index.php