Ileana Ros-Lehtinen Talks About Phone Snafu, Praises Obama On Radio Show

If Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) must do some time as a punchline after twice refusing to take a call from President-Elect Barack Obama, believing it to be a prank phone call, she's taking it in the spirit of good humor. That's the impression she left after discussing the matter with Elvis Duran and the Y100 Morning Show, the group she thought was behind the Prank That Wasn't -- based on their propensity for pulling off similar stunts (called "Phone Taps").

"It's your fault!" Ros-Lehtinen joked. "The 'Phone Taps' are killing us!" The Congresswoman told the radio hosts about the entire ordeal -- the call from Obama, the follow-up from Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, and the final, saving attempt from her Congressional colleague Howard Berman, who thankfully had a private joke to share with Ros-Lehtinen that served as a sufficient shibboleth.

Ros-Lehtinen, who notes that she was a McCain supporter during the election, was nevertheless upbeat about the whole matter, and struck a note of comity by praising the President-Elect for reaching out to "a little slug like me." She added, "It really does show he's going to reach out to Republicans and Independents...and get united."

You can listen to Ros-Lehtinen and the Elvis Duran show by clicking here.

Comments

[hortonhearsawho]

Or, Or, did she think oh crap I'm busted?

[hortonhearsawho]

He even calls my neighbor and I am getting the phone just like that...

[seadickrun]

I think this is a great story since I had so much fun laughing at Sarah Palin getting pranked by a "Sarkozy" call. I applaud the Congresswoman for playing hard to get:))

[digoweli]

Years ago my thirteen year old daughter, with her friends, decided to pull such pranks on the unsuspecting. They got caught and I told the police woman to please talk seriously to them and she did. As a result, my daughter put her considerable talents into school and graduated summa cum laud from her college instead of wasting her life in useless pranks. :>)

[floobydust]

I'm not aware of any cellphone that doesn't have CALLER ID.

Hello? Did it occur to her to look a the little screen to see who was calling? You know, where the little screen sez "B OBAMA" or "WHITE HOUSE".

Ileana, what kind of excuse is this of yours that "It wasn't a 'structured' call, as you purport??? LAME, that's what. I guess we can't rely on you to take any of those calls at 3am, eh?

CALLER ID, Ileana. CALLER ID. Get with the program in the 21st century.

[bogues]

Great point about the caller ID. I do find it hard to believe that she didnot know it was him after the second call. I think her true personality got exposed and now she is doing damage control. At least she had the good sense to say that she thinks Pres. elect Obama is trying to reach out to the GOP.

[trish74]

That's why I told my boyfriend to put Barack straight through when he calls.

[hortonhearsawho]

Even then?...sheepish grin.

[ZimboChick]

The Prez is a good man. Cut the woman some slack, no one wants to be associated with the moose hunter('s experiences)

[inluvwkeitholbermann]

well there is such a thing as being too cautious.........however after SARAH-is-this-the-french-president-calling-me-from-montreal?-PALIN, i can hardly blame her

[Bitsko]

It must be so sad to be a republican.

[hortonhearsawho]

much as that doesn't break my heart...

[me again]

Stupid twit.

[rsaillant1]

Hey, a little credit where credit is due;

She at least recognizes that she's "a little slug."

If only GWB had the same self awareness.

[GeorgiaOrwell]

I second that. She was a McCain supporter, too, so maybe she doesn't know about caller ID. This is the kind of elected official Florida could probably do without.

[zitlight73]

Was it really and accident or was it some residual Republican arrogance left over the Tom Delay days? If Obama was as petty the Republicans have been these last few years this would bode ill for her state.

[LPGal1961]

I think this story happened exactly as it was told. I've seen this congresswoman on Bill Maher and she is such a good sport and good guest on a left-leaning show.

After Sarah Palin's mishap of totally falling for a prank call; I think Ileana has the smarts to feel the situation out first before getting punked.

Barack Obama is really showing a lot of class and support calling the congresswoman and offering his congratulations. I pray and hope things are going to get better for our nation. Peace

[zitlight73]

It probably did happen that way. I was just trying to point out had Obama ran and was elected back in 2004 when the Republicans were running amok, I could actually see Tom Delay knowingly refusing to take an Obama call. Or if somebody had done the to Bush, things may have been different.

[ckfan]

This speaks volumes about President-Elect Obama. He called her himself to congratulate her on her victory. Now, that's reaching across the aisle.

[GoodGuysandBadGuys]

"GOP Rep. Embarrassed By Obama Hang Up, She Says"

she should be more embarrassed about her voting record.

[Bitsko]

You said it.

[hortonhearsawho]

these people don't even worry about criminal records...much less...

[Navy26Yrs]

The end of paragraph 2 was the best part of the entire story. The use of the word "shibboleth" in the story was priceless! The rest of the story was a simple waste of bandwidth. Much like my comment.

"....who thankfully had a private joke to share with Ros-Lehtinen that served as a sufficient shibboleth."

[GHENT007]

She a typical republican, if god himself called her she'd hang-up, I'm gonna give her a call just to see if that's the case!!!