12/06/2008
from the Kennebec Journal
Sport of Kings
New Medicaid billing system inspires doubts among some
Christmas spirit
Guidance counselor: Dismiss complaint based on criticism of same-sex marriage
CHELSEA: 'Practice burn' provides thrill for 9-year-old
Trust eyes orchard purchase
GOLFER OF THE YEAR: Bonenfant rises up Cony ranks
YOUTH SOCCER: Local team gives 'care package' to children in Afghanistan
All of today's:
News | Sports
from the Kennebec Journal
from the Morning Sentinel
YES ON 1 BACKER REBUTS CLAIM
New system for Medicaid payments worries providers
After petition drive, Clinton police force budget will go a third time before voters
A rock musician makes trip home via Black Taxi
MADISON: After revaluation, abatement requests reviewed
Parks to have facelift
GOLFER OF THE YEAR: Sweet does job for Madison
YOUTH SOCCER: Local team gives 'care package' to children in Afghanistan
All of today's:
News | Sports
from the Morning Sentinel
Not because we'd be spending our life spelling our complicated, hyphenated name for everyone.
Not because it's hard to be a Republican in Congress these days.
Not because Florida's prone to punishing hurricanes.
We're glad we're not Rep. Ros-Lehtinen because she must be cosmically, unbearably, royally and incredibly embarrassed this week.
On Wednesday, the congresswoman answered her phone. It was Barack Obama, calling to congratulate her on her re-election and saying he was pleased at the prospect of working with her as the House Foreign Affairs Committee's lead Republican member.
Yeah, sure.
Ros-Lehtinen says she told the caller "Boy, you're a much better impersonator than that guy on Saturday Night Live." And with a few more disparaging remarks, Ros-Lehtinen hung up the phone, convinced that it was a prank caller. Click!
The phone rings again. This time, it's Rahm Emanuel, Obama's chief of staff. With Obama on the line.
Yeah, sure. This is over the top, right? That's what the congresswoman thought. So she hung up again. No way this was the president-elect and his chief of staff.
It was.
It took a phone call from one of Ros-Lehtinen's colleagues in Congress, Rep. Howard Berman, to convince her the calls were legitimate.
No harm done, said Obama, when he called back for the third time. "Anytime my ego gets pumped up," Ros-Lehtinen says he told her, "Michelle will remind me that you hung up not once, but twice on me."
The congresswoman, for her part, says she was "flabbergasted" when she realized what happened. "I just hung up on the most powerful man on Earth -- twice."
So now she's managed to insult both the president-elect and the current president who, last time we checked, was still the most powerful man on Earth, for at least a few more weeks.




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