This is amusing:
Cong. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen thought it was a hoax when President-Elect Barak (sic) Obama called her twice today and she proceeded to hang up on him, twice.
“Ros-Lehtinen was working in her South Florida district when she received a call on her cell from a Chicago based phone number and an aide informed her that President-Elect Obama wished to speak to her. A gentleman sounding like Obama introduced himself when Ros-Lehtinen cut him off and said that ‘I’m sorry but I think this is a joke from one of the South Florida radio stations known for these pranks’ and hung up.
“A short time later, Cong. and Chief of Staff designate Rahm Emmanuel (sic) called Ileana and stated ‘Ileana, I cannot believe that you hung up on the President-Elect.’ Ros-Lehtinen told Rahm that she didn’t believe the call was legitimate and hung up on Emmanuel (sic). A staffer to the Congresswoman informed her that Chairman Howard Berman of the Foreign Affairs Committee needed to speak with her urgently. When Chairman Berman called, Ros-Lehtinen urged him to recount a story only both of them would know, which he did, and told her that she had indeed hung up on the President-Elect.
Ros-Lehtinen is kind of crazy to start, so that just makes the story funnier. AT any rate, I guess the more important thing to glean from this story is that Obama is taking the time during the transition period to call pretty much everyone in Congress. It is silly, but a simple call from the President-elect is the kind of thing that strokes the egos of these elected narcissists, and a chunk of good will can be earned with a simple phone call.
Hugh
After the Sarah Palin episode I can’t say I blame her but if she thought it might be a prank couldn’t she have done something to double check?
Caidence (fmr. Chris)
So now DJs have the power to destroy our intra-government communications. Get some good impersonators, and make a lot of calls, and for a couple of weeks the actual President won’t be able to call anyone.
Why the fuck couldn’t they do this shit when Iraq was starting up??
Also, please note that if someone hangs up on President Bush, it’s because they’re knowingly hanging up on President Bush.
dmsilev
Heh.
Obama doesn’t hold grudges about things like that. Rahm Emmanuel, on the other hand….
-dms
dmsilev
Oh, and you missed the best part:
I really think this needs to be cross-filed under "Clown Shoes".
-dms
Ash Can
What makes this story even funnier is the fact that the text in block quote is taken directly from a press release from her office — in which the names of Barack Obama and Rahm Emanuel are both misspelled. Not that my own spelling is perfect, mind you, but shouldn’t someone with the job of issuing press releases on behalf of a Congressional representative maybe, just maybe, know how to spell the name of the POTUS?
(ETA: Beat me to it, dms. And yes, I would imagine that a certain So. FLA wingnut’s name is now engraved upon a certain CoS’s stone shitlist.)
canuckistani
This is excellent, mostly because the blame can be placed at the feet of Sarah Palin. if she hadn’t been so gullible, politicians wouldn’t be so nervous about being pranked.
J. Michael Neal
She’s a member of Congress. Presumably, she knows Rahm Emanuel personally. She still can’t tell when it’s him on the phone.
MBunge
The first hang up on Obama is obviously embarassing, but I don’t think it’s really significant after the whole Palin thing. The stuff with Rahm and the other congressman is a big, flashing neon sign that there is something actually wrong with this woman.
Mike
Caidence (fmr. Chris)
@canuckistani:
Fixident and forget it. McCain’s team wouldn’t have let this happen. Nor Romney, nor Huckabee. We’re talking a special class of Stupid, here.
Tymannosourus
And people wonder why confidence in Congress is at its nadir.
TheAssInTheHatOnMyCat(Formerly Comrade Tax Analyst)
Cong. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen wishes to inform you that Ralf Nadir is NOT in Congress…she had a staff person check on it.
Oh, and pleeze stop pulling theese pranks on her, wood ya’? She’s got a lotta impoortent things to do theese daze.
Punchy
Uh…..WTF? Just how hard is it to check the fucking phone number of the person calling? Does she think some SoFla DJs rooked Barry’s Treo when he was campaigning and decided to use it?
Wha? Something doesn’t add up. NOBODY is this fucking stupid. Methinks she’s pulling a Musgrave and is just too fucking bitter and petty to talk to a higher-ranked Negro. AFter all, she’s Cuban. Immigrants dont get any more arrogant and self-superior than Cubans (flame me all you want, it’s the truth).
Caidence (fmr. Chris)
@Punchy:
Sort of, yeah, but sort of, no. Note that Congresspersons are great at being pompous pricks beyond their actual importance, so checking caller-ID would be beneath Ileana. She’d leave that to her staff.
Now imagine the class of staffer that’s available to the Republican party these days. They’ve all signed Rove Loyalty Oaths by now, and have come from such prominent places as Falwell’s House of Fake Laws. Protruding foreheads and glassy stares come to mind…
Incertus
@J. Michael Neal: You know, I blogged about this late last night, and as I was writing, it occurred to me that, for all the talk about chumminess in DC, 435 people is a large number, and that’s just the House. Factor in your own staff, important constituents from back home, political operatives, lobbyists, etc., and it’s really not surprising that she wouldn’t know the voice of a guy from the other party, even if he was in a leadership position. I mean, I like to take the piss out of the other side whenever possible, and Ros-Lehtinen in particular because she’s in the district next to mine, but in this case, I just have to laugh at it.
Tom Hilton
I’m impressed that Obama is personally calling every single American citizen. 300-some million phone calls–that’s a lot.
But I can’t imagine any other reason he would bother to call Ros-Lehtinen.
Brian J
I don’t know much about her politics, but I will say that she appears to be reasonably affable if her appearance on a recent episode of "Real Time with Bill Maher" is any indication. I also like the fact that she appears to be chuckling while dealing with all of this.
Tim Fuller
We now have a new cultural "meme" to deal with (as Richard Dawkins might say). The fear of being pranked on the phone is now a part of the ‘elected consciousness’
1. We need a proper name for this meme. ("phone pranking a politician") is just too cumbersome. Something working off the root ‘palin’ might be useful.
2. How long before CONGRESS passes some sort of new law (in the name of NATIONAL SECURITY) to criminalize this behavior?
Enjoy.
kid bitzer
biggest wtf? part:
Ileana told Obama that ‘you are either very gracious to reach out in such a bipartisan manner or had run out of folks to call if you are truly calling me and Saturday Night Live could use a good Obama impersonator like you.’
she says, to obama himself, that he would make a good obama impersonator on snl?
and this is part of her press-release?
thank you, republican party, for sending us your best and brightest.
Cain
@Brian J:
It’s not like she could react any other way. I mean if she was grinding her teeth or something we’d definitely think something is wrong with her.
But we need to wait for the inevitable "War on DJs" to be started by her and Sarah Palin.
cain
JimPortlandOR
hanging up on Obama? i guess she COULD have been in fear of being Palinized.
hanging up on Rahm? An action she will regret for decades. I’d bet Emanuel will be picking personally the person to run against her in 2010, and bankrolling that campaign. That’s some serious shit for her to be fooling with.
binzinerator
This also reveals more of the gooper mindset regarding communication with ‘the enemy’. You attack, insult, smear, bully or shout down the opposition. You don’t do anything like actually try to talk to them. Duh!
Heck, if one of them was going to be POTUS they would never call a Dem congressman. It would never even cross their minds.
It is therefore unpossible for Obama to be calling.
You can just smell the suspicion, even after her staffers assured her it really was Obama, so naturally such suspicion and incredulity calls for tempering anything civil to say with an insult waiting in the wings:
Shorter: "I’m not going to hand you a compliment with one hand without flipping you off with the other. And oh yeah. Almost forgot. Let’s all work together, yadda yadda yadda."
As always with conservatives, there is an element of projectionism to be found whenever they open their mouths.
Bad Horse's Filly
If only he were single and she were adorable, it would make a perfect ‘cute meet’ for a hollywood film. Oh, wait….
binzinerator
One more thing, this misspelling of Rahm Emanuel’s and Obama’s name are I believe intentional. (I tried posting most of the following over at ABC news but it got flagged as spam).
One, it’s typical GOP sophomoric disrespect – recall how they call the Democratic Party the ‘Democrat Party’. Yes it’s petty and small but these are republicans we’re talking about.
Two, ‘Emmanuel’ has a specific Christian meaning. Rahm Emanuel is Jewish. It’s another petty way to dis the man, this time both his name and his faith.
Third, according to the Wikipedia, "Christian belief holds that the Emmanuel is the Messiah foretold in the other prophecies of Isaiah."
You may recall that republicans and the right-wing gasbags like Limbaugh mock Obama as The Messiah, and have spent considerable efforts to convince their wingnut fundy base Obama is in reality the Antichrist. This alone would make the intentional misspelling of Rahm’s last name just irresistible to the goopers, just like fart noises are irresistible to Bevis and Butthead.
Last, Ros-Lehtenin’s staff aren’t the only ones who seem to be unable to spell Rahm’s last name correctly.
McArdle’s a dipshit but she’s bright enough to know the Christian meaning of Emmanuel, and certainly she’s bright enough to find out how to spell Rahm Emanuel’s name correctly.
Yes, the misspellings are intentional, and we’ll be seeing endless repetition of it from the Right.
Caramon
A pity Annette Taddeo didn’t win. She was clearly the superior candidate.
Cain
@binzinerator:
OR it could be a reference to the series of soft porn movies called Emmanuel. Have you thought of that?! Everything about Republicans is about sex.. so it would’n’t surprise me.
cain
Jim
Michael Anthony would show up with an envelope from John Beresford Tipton and she’d slam the door on his foot before sicking the pit bull (with or without lipstick) on him.
TheAssInTheHatOnMyCat(Formerly Comrade Tax Analyst)
HAR! Someone else old enough to remember the old TV show, "The Millionaire". (I think that was the title)
binzinerator
@Cain:
No, I hadn’t. Wouldn’t surprise me either. ; )