Ileana Ros-Lehtinen: The First Hispanic Woman in Congress

When it comes to Republican Congresswomen in the news, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen isn't a name you hear often, but she has definitely made an impact on the party and the country. Not only is she the most senior ranking Republican female in Congress, but she's the first Republican female to represent the state of Florida in Congress, as well. A Cuban immigrant who has truly paved her own way to live the American dream, she is also the first Hispanic woman elected to Congress. Throughout the twenty years she's spent representing Florida's Eighteenth Congressional District, she has been a driving force for a number of issues and like any prominent politician, has not been without controversy. Here is a look at the life and career of Ileana Ros-Lehtinen:

Ileana Ros-Lehtinen was born July 15, 1952 in Havana Cuba to businessman, activist and author Enrique Ros and his wife Amanda Adato. At the age of eight, her family was forced to flee Cuba and they moved to Miami, Florida. Ros-Lehtinen received an Associates Degree from Miami-Dade Community College, both her Bachelors and Masters Degrees from Florida International University, and her Doctorate Degree in education from the University of Miami. She eventually took her passion for education to a new level and started and ran Eastern Academy, a private elementary school in south Florida.

According to her website, in 1982, after listening to many of her friends and neighbors complain about the issues facing their lives, she decided to run for the Florida House of Representatives. Her bid for a seat was successful and she went on to serve a second term in 1986. One of her most notable achievements during that time was the creation of the Florida Pre-paid College program which allows parents to lock in college tuition rates.

In 1989, Ros-Lehtinen ran successfully for her current seat in Congress. Even though she is a Republican and holds a number of strong Conservative stances, she often sides with Democrats on the issues of gay rights. She is currently the only Republican member of the LGBT Equality Caucus and believes gays should be allowed to serve openly in the military. She also voted against the Federal Marriage Amendment which would have restricted marriage to be only between a man and a woman. She has also fought to keep oil drilling off the Florida coast (though she does support drilling in ANWR), co-sponsored the Coral Reef Preservation Act, and co-founded the National Marine Sanctuary Caucus.

On many other issues, Congresswoman Ros-Lehtinen is a staunch Conservative. She was a strong supporter of the war and subsequently the surge in Iraq. Ros-Lehtinen, whose maternal grandparents were Jewish and very active in Cuba's Jewish community, is also a strong supporter of Israel. She supported President Bush's tax cuts, supports free trade, voted against the estate tax, and signed the Taxpayer Protection Pledge. She has also voted against stem cell research.

Ros-Lehtinen is perhaps one of the most prominent members of the Cuban-American lobby and is a member of the Congressional Cuba Democracy Caucus. Her strong views have led her to lobby against ending the United States embargo against Cuba and she has worked to prevent United States banks from doing business with the Cuban government. She has referred to the country as "that system of godless communism," was instrumental in the failed attempt at allowing Elian Gonzalez to stay in the United States and even attempted to block Jimmy Carter's visit to the country in 2002.

Ros-Lehtinen's humanitarian work doesn't just stop in Cuba. As the ranking member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, she has worked on behalf of human rights in a number of other places including Tibet, Iran, Haiti and Darfur, and she has been a loud voice for free trade with Columbia, as well as an advocate for democracy in Iran and Venezuela. She is currently traveling to Honduras, in an effort to convince her colleagues that they must restore aid to the nation.

Upon being re-elected in 2008, she made headlines after hanging up on both President Barack Obama and his chief o staff, Rahm Emanuel who were calling to congratulate her. She has also been accused of wishing for the assassination of Fidel Castro, something she strongly denies. Ros-Lehtinen was recently inducted to the Florida Women's Hall of Fame.

Ros-Lehtinen is married to Dexter Lehtinen. She two daughters, Amanda and Patricia, and two stepchildren, Douglas and Catherine.

Sarah Palin vs. Nationalized Health Care

Since resigning from her position as Governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin has not given up on her quest to remove excessive government from our everyday lives. Over the course of the last week, Palin has, as promised, bypassed the media to deliver her message to the American people by way of her official Facebook page. Response from the public, the media and even the President proves that not only is Palin relevant, but she is still a huge threat to "business as usual" politics in Washington DC and throughout the country.

On April 7, Palin began her quest against the nationalized health care plan by simply saying "...hell no." In a brief statement, she suggested that not only will the system not reduce the cost of health care but rationing of care will cause the sick, the elderly and the disabled to suffer at the hands of a "death panel:"

"The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s “death panel” so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their “level of productivity in society,” whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil."

Palin goes on to commend Congresswoman Michele Bachmann for standing up to the Obama administration and insists we must stand up to the debate because nationalized health care is a "point of no return for government interference" in our lives. A few days later, Palin posted a number of supporting articles authored by everyome from Senator Sam Brownback to economist Thomas Sowell.

On August 11, at a town hall meeting in New Hampshire, President Barack Obama responded to Palin's claims that health care would be rationed and that the weakest members of society would suffer most:

“Let me just be specific about some things that I’ve been hearing lately that we just need to dispose of here. The rumor that’s been circulating a lot lately is this idea that somehow the House of Representatives voted for death panels that will basically pull the plug on grandma because we’ve decided that we don’t, it’s too expensive to let her live anymore....It turns out that I guess this arose out of a provision in one of the House bills that allowed Medicare to reimburse people for consultations about end-of-life care, setting up living wills, the availability of hospice, etc. So the intention of the members of Congress was to give people more information so that they could handle issues of end-of-life care when they’re ready on their own terms. It wasn’t forcing anybody to do anything.”

Late last night, Palin fired back, citing a section in the bill entitled "Advance Care Planning Consultation." She says the Presidents words are "misleading" and goes on to cite Section 1233 of the health care bill which essentially says that when a Medicare recipient's health changes significantly, when they enter a nursing home, or every five years, these "Advanced Care Planning Consultations" are authorized by the bill. Palin points out that if the consultations are there strictly for compassionate reasons, as many would have you believe, why does it even belong in a bill whose purpose is to "reduce the growth in health care spending."

Palin goes on to say that the problem doesn't lie in the bill, alone, but in statements made by Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, a policy advisor to Obama and brother to the President's chief of staff. Palin points out that Dr. Emanuel has gone as far to say that health care should not be provided for those who cannot and never will be participating members of society, such as patients with dementia. Emanuel has also advocated preferred medical care to individuals between the age of 15 and 40.

Check out more of her thoughts on Nationalized Health Care by reading Palin's response to Obama.

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Congressional Pro-Life Women's Caucus Fights Abortion Bail-Out

What do Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, Mary Fallin of Oklahoma, Virginia Foxx of North Carolina, Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington, Candice Miller of Michigan, Sue Myrick of North Carolina, Jean Schmidt of Ohio, and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida all have in common? Besides being current Congresswomen, they are all members of the Congressional Pro-Life Women's Caucus. The Caucus, formed in 2007, allows these powerful leaders to stand up for women and their unborn babies in the fight against abortion.

The latest item on their agenda is the "1.8 million dollar bailout of the abortion industry." Along with the Susan B. Anthony List, a group that works to advance the role of pro-life women in politics, and other pro-life groups, the Caucus recently urged Congress to ensure tax-payers' dollars are not used to fund abortions and that the Dornan Amendment is preserved. The Dornan Amendment, named for former California Congressman Robert Dornan, is a law that bans tax-payer funding of abortion in Washington D. C., except for when the mother's life is in danger or in the case of rape or incest. It has been in place for almost twenty years.

If President Obama gets his way, the law would be amended to make tax-funded abortion legal in D.C.. Pro-life groups say changing the law would encourage at least an extra 1,000 elective abortions each year that would not have occurred before. Joy Yearout of the Susan B. Anthony List told CNSNews that what the President wants to do is change the law so that it says "federal funds," creating a loophole that allows for the use of local taxes. Yearout is hoping the members of Congress will know the details and potential ramifications of the change in the law before the legislation is even placed in front of them and says her group is currently working with the pro-life members of Congress to make that happen. Because Washington D.C. allows teenagers to get abortions without parental consent, the fear is that teenage girls would flock to D.C. to have abortions, ignoring the laws in their home states.

The National Right to Life Committee calls President Obama's commitment to reducing the number of abortions a "political scam." In a statement, the National Right to Life Committee's Legislative Director, Douglas Johnson, said,

"Some wide-eyed journalists and various political shills for the Obama administration continue to write fairy tales about how President Obama wants to pursue policies that would reduce abortions. In reality, President Obama is pursuing a step-by-step strategy to expand access to abortion..."

Johnson also said,

"The abortion industry's own studies suggest that many thousands of residents of the nation's capital are alive today because of the abortion funding ban that President Obama now proposes to repeal."

Visit the Stop the Abortion Bailout Action Center at the Susan B. Anthony List to learn what you can do to help the Pro-Life Women of Congress spread the word to their colleagues about President Obama's proposed actions regarding abortion.

Karen Handel takes on Voters' Rights

In what Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel calls a "shockingly political move," the Department of Justice (DOJ) recently discarded Georgia's voter verification program which was put in place to help prevent non-Georgia citizens from voting. According to Secretary Handel, the DOJ's new orders essentially violate federal law and contradict previous demands placed in 2007, before the new administration took office. In an exclusive statement Handel explained to us,

"The irony of this DOJ situation is that, right after I was elected I received a letter -- a demand letter if you will -- from the DOJ asking why we did not have the verification program, required by federal law, in place. The reason was pretty simple, the previous administration did not do it. We did, immediately and communicated the details to DOJ. For more than a year, the DOJ knew this verification program was in place, and no one raised a question or an objection. It was only after groups like MALDEF and the ACLU starting complaining that the DOJ become interested. When those groups sued Georgia, two federal courts ordered us to continue the verification programs -- with lawyers from the DOJ sitting in the court room.

Now seven months later, DOJ has essentially voided the court orders and are now directing us to stop the verification process -- the same process they directed us to implement in 2007. DOJ's directive prohibits the citizenship verification and even prohibits the basic verification to ensure that that individuals registering are at the very least who they say they are. The fraud potential created by the DOJ decision is vast. There are dozens of cases across the country involving improper and illegal voter registration activities by ACORN and other groups. This decision creates a gaping opportunity for additional fraud and opens the door for "universal voter registration” with no checks whatsoever.

It's also important to note that the verification process is required under the Federal Help America Vote Act (HAVA). HAVA specifically requires states to verify information from new voter registration applicants with the Department of Driver Services databases and with the Social Security Administration databases. DOJ's decision essentially directs us to ignore Federal law. Because of this, we have sought clarification from the DOJ. To date, we have not received a response."

Though Secretary Handel is currently working harder than any other elected official in the country to protect the rights of citizens to "fair and honest elections," the issue reaches far beyond the state of Georgia. This move by the DOJ under the Obama administration is setting the tone for the 2010 and 2012 elections and will, according to Handel, have serious implications all over the country,

Should DOJ confirm its intention to prohibit the verification process in its entirety, all states will be affected. This is a direct assault on the integrity of elections and is yet another example of the Federal government overreaching into the state's authority. Further, I am very concerned that we are seeing the beginning of politicizing the elections process as we approach 2010 and head into 2012, which will be the first election after redistricting and reapportionment.

So, if we consider the controversies surrounding the census and the anticipated fights that will occur around redistricting, one can see that this issue here in Georgia may well have an impact nationally.

So what can you do to help Handel in her effort to protect the voting rights of all American citizens? The Secretary asked us to pass along this message,

"[You] can help with a mouse click or two. I started an online petition with the goal of getting 10,000 signatures of people who want their voices heard in opposition to this terrible decision. That petition now has more than 20,000 names on it. It can be found at www.karenhandel.com and I urge your readers to sign it, ask their friends to sign it, post it on their Facebook pages and tweet messages in support of it on Twitter. We can make a difference and that is the first step."

Karen Handel was elected Secretary of State in Georgia on November 7, 2006 and been a champion for the people, their rights, their tax dollars and an advocate for responsible government ever since. She is currently running for Governor of Georgia and more information can be found at her website.

We'd like to thank Secretary Handel for taking the time to answer our questions and wish her luck with leading the fight for voters' rights.

Lynn Jenkins Delivers GOP's Weekly Radio Address

Today, Congresswoman Lynn Jenkins of Kansas became the first freshman Republican in Congress to respond to President Obama's weekly radio address. Jenkins, a former CPA and the former Kansas State Treasurer spoke out on Democrats' "truly eye-opening" spending policies and focused on the wasteful use of taxpayer money to fund the stimulus bill,

"Well, in the last few weeks, we've heard about plenty of 'stimulus' waste Taxpayer dollars earmarked for a homeless program in a town with no homeless problem. Millions to extend an 'Artwalk' in New York. And more than a million dollars for sidewalks and trash cans outside a casino in Michigan...This bill was supposed to be about jobs, but it's gone off the rails in practically no time at all and millions of your tax dollars are being wasted. It's quickly turning into a symbol of everything wrong with Washington, D.C. - unchecked spending, no accountability and oversight, and more and more debt piled onto our children and grandchildren."

Jenkins went on to talk about how Obama's first 10 days have been full of "spending, taxing, and borrowing" and how Republicans want to fight for the middle class and small businesses. You can watch the address in its entirety here:

So who is Lynn Jenkins? Here's a little information about the Congresswoman from Kansas' Second District:

A sixth-generation Kansan, Lynn Jenkins was born and raised on dairy farm near Holton, Kansas. She attended Kansas State University and Weber State College and graduated with a degree in Accounting. After working as a Certified Public Accountant for many years, Jenkins served two years in the Kansas House of Representatives and one term as a Kansas State Senator. In 2002, she became the Kansas State Treasurer. During her tenure as Treasurer, she served as the president of the National Associating of State Treasurers. Jenkins was elected to Congress in 2008. She currently serves the Committee on Financial Services on both the subcommittee on Capital Markets, Insurance, and Government-Sponsored Enterprises, and the subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity. Jenkins is also mom to two children, Hayley and Hayden.

A fiscal conservative, Jenkins would like to make President George W. Bush's tax cuts permanent, is often critical of many "wasteful" pork projects, and claims the rising price of oil is due to excess regulation. She also hold strong views on illegal immigration claiming that it "is wreaking havoc on our economic, legal, and national security interests." In January, Jenkins introduced a bill to prevent detainees from being moved from Guantanamo Bay to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.