I have been a resident of Burlingame for about 20 years and a long time frustrated constituent of U.S. Representative to Congress Tom Lantos. At first when i knew no better i voted for him. Then when i noted his office's lack of respect for the resident voters in his district and his spineless go-with-the-flow record, i started voting for any and all of his opponents. Let us not get carried away with a elder politician who had tons of seniority but did little to stand up or in opposition to the massive corruption in the state capital of Sacramento or the same vote-buying slime behavior in the nation's capital.
For instance, California is now in terrible ,desperate financial straights maybe for 50-100 years because Governor Arnold will not raise taxes on those that can very well afford it,,, because the old and only Governor ,tidal wave kicked out of office, Grey Davis and the bulk of the state legislature lied to us repeatedly saying that the deregulation of energy, both electricity and natural gas, would result in much lower prices,,,when, in obvious fact, the prices skyrocketed more than 4Xs especially with the fraud added by many energy and finance/banking companies in cahoots with Enron. Where was Tom Lantos and the wisdom and outrage of such massive repeated government bungling and boldface lies ? Not even a blip on the public radar or media about him taking the honest ethical and brave proper stand.
Again, when Governor Reagan was ultimately responsible for the closing of the state mental hospitals, like the huge Agnews in the south S.F. bay area and the large Sonoma mental hospital in Sonoma, starting the huge expansion in our homeless statewide problem, where was Tom Lantos in the early 1970s to stand up for the mentally ill who the rich state of California at that time could well afford? Quietly, neglecting the power and privileges of his public responsibility? He had a moral responsibility to speak up for all those unfortunate insane people who could not speak up or pay up for themselves.
Again, when Governor ,,,ugh,,,Grey Davis used a back room committee to take away even more of our state's weak blue collar overtime coverage and enforcement, where was the ineffectual Tom Lantos ???
On the nation front, did he loudly oppose U.S. Govt torture of our enemies, by either the military or other branch? Like senior senator Diane Feinstein, "where is the beef?!" We see all the constant coddling of the super rich people and super profitable corporations, all the truly ugly highrises in San Francisco from her mayorship,,,but no bold moral do-the-right-thing vocal leadership.
Where was Tom Lantos in opposing the supreme folly of the Bushes and both their ruinously expensive and terrorist encouraging middle east wars? Did he get the countries over there who said they would pay for it to do so? Did he make any difference at all ?
Even on such a small matter as making sure a California employer who was paying by check ,,,was also doing the legal and correct thing of paying payroll taxes, Tom Lantos and his staff lost the IRS permission letter not once, but twice,,, and don't we have ENOUGH ! corporate corruption in California? San Francisco Bay is very polluted, so where was Tom Lantos' big effort to make it better? We are short what 20,000 nurses in California and there are so few openings at the state's community and state colleges,,,hells bells, Tom !!
Legacy of HUGE disappointment. Go big, or go home.
