The Foreign Service Journal, February 2007

probably be seeing a lot of the veter- an legislator during the opening months of the 110th Congress. Lan- tos has already declared that “You can expect to see the foreign policy aspect of the legislative branch take a new direction. There will be sub- stantially more oversight of the exec- utive branch, with greater emphasis on holding this administration ac- countable.” His counterpart, Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., the new head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, pre- dicts a similar change in foreign policy on the Senate side. Biden says the elections show that “the American people rejected the Bush administration’s failed policy in Iraq.” With Democrats in power, lawmakers will hold hear- ings and write legislation that aims for wholesale changes in the Bush administration’s foreign policy and how it doles out aid overseas. More specifically, Democrats will push for a major strategic shift in the conduct of the Iraq War, urge direct U.S. talks with Iran and North Korea, increase foreign aid spending and link assistance to human rights. Both Lantos and Biden are familiar and respected voices in foreign policy circles. However, the legislators come from vastly different backgrounds and could ulti- mately back different solutions for Iraq. They’ll also face varied challenges in working with Republicans and mem- bers of their own party to develop a consensus on their committees on foreign policy issues. A Flexible Hard-Liner Lantos, 78, has perhaps the most compelling personal story of any member of Congress as its only Holocaust survivor. A Hungarian-born Jew, Lantos escaped from a Nazi labor camp as a 16-year-old and spent the war in a safe house in Budapest. He was liberated by the Soviets in 1945, only to find that his mother and other family members had died. He came to America from Switzerland on an academ- ic scholarship in 1947, and eventually became a college professor. Sent to Congress in 1979 with almost no previous elective experience — though he had worked as a consultant to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and also served as a school board president — he’s now in his 14th term. He has been the ranking Democrat on the House International Relations Committee since 2001, but has never before served as its chairman. His unique journey has shaped his congressional career as a top champion of human rights and a founder of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus. However, his backing of a robust foreign policy aligns more closely with neoconservative views than traditionally liberal ones. Along with then-House International Relations Commit- tee Chairman Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Ill., he helped write the 2002 resolution authorizing the Iraq War. Lantos also backs the Bush administration’s belief that the United States should aggressively spread democracy in the Middle East, staunchly supports Israel and has criticized Saudi Arabia for financing terrorist operations. At the same time, he has shown flexibility on some issues. For example, after writing the law imposing sanc- tions against Libya in the 1980s, Lantos was the first member of Congress to call for lifting them in 2004 after he traveled to Tripoli to meet with the nation’s leader, Muammar al-Qaddafi. The Foreign Policy Expert Biden, 64, grew up in Scranton, Pa., the son of a car dealer. He stunned political observers in 1970 when, as a 29-year-old county councilman, he beat an incumbent GOP senator, in part by criticizing the Vietnam War. Hailed immediately as a political wonder kid, Biden almost opted not to take office after his wife and infant daughter were killed and two sons seriously injured in a car accident five weeks after his election. Now beginning his sixth Senate term, Biden is acknowledged as an expert on foreign policy — the day before the 9/11 attacks, he presciently warned that the U.S. was vulnerable to terrorists. His polished speaking style has made him a staple of Sunday morning political talk shows, but his outspokenness has occasionally irked colleagues. A member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for over three decades, he was chairman F O C U S 22 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / F E B R U A R Y 2 0 0 7 George Cahlink is a defense and foreign policy reporter for Congressional Quarterly . He has a decade of expe- rience writing about national security issues for National Journal , Defense Daily and Defense News. Condoleezza Rice has known Rep. Tom Lantos since her days as a Stanford University academic.