Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, one of our Florida GOPpers, hung up twice on the President-Elect, thinking she was being punked and pranked and pwned. (Politico) Oh, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. Tch.
Of course, we all know what really happened: Ros-Lehtinen was remembering that unfortunate incident where a couple of Canadian pranksters called up Sarah Palin, pretending to be President Sarkozy, and she innocently and credulously and characteristically gabbed away with "President Sarkozy" till the penny finally dropped and an aide took the phone away from her.
Throughout the call...Palin and the pranksters discuss politics, pundits, and the perils of going hunting with Vice-President Dick Cheney.
"We have such great respect for you, John McCain and I, we love you," Palin gushes....
At one point, Palin even comes close to confirming her intention to one day run for president, when...["Sarkozy"] slyly remarks he can see her taking over the big desk in the Oval office.
"Maybe in eight years," she replies with a nervous chuckle...(Can. Press; see BN-Politics here)
As our co-blogger observes, some pols---pols such as Ileana Ros-Lehtinen---would have caught on sooner. Ben Smith gravely noted that it was "unclear whether she suspected it was a prank as the call grew increasingly absurd." Actually, it wasn't unclear at all: she didn't.
Florida's Ileana Ros-Lehtinen is never going to get pwned by some random Obama or Rahm Emanuel impersonator!.
According to Ros-Lehtinen's flack Alex Cruz, the congresswoman received the call on her cell phone from a Chicago-based number and an aide informed her that Obama wanted to speak to her. When Obama introduced himself, Ros-Lehtinen cut him off and said, "I'm sorry but I think this is a joke from one of the South Florida radio stations known for these pranks." Then she hung up.
Moments later, Obama tried again, this time through his soon-to-be chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel.
"Ileana, I cannot believe you hung up on the President-Elect," Emanuel said. And then--yes, you know what's coming--she hung up on Emanuel saying she "didn't believe the call was legitimate."
A short time later, Ros-Lehtinen received an urgent call from Rep. Howard Berman (D-Calif.), the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, who informed her that she indeed hung up on Obama.
So, Obama tried again and this time he was successful. (Phew!)
"It is very funny that you have twice hung up on me," Obama said. Ros Lehtinen responded by telling Obama that radio stations in South Florida always make these sorts of jokes. Obama said similar pranksters reside in Chi-town. (Politico)
It all ended well, you'll be glad to know.
She also said it was "very gracious" of him to reach out in such a bipartisan manner, unless of course---cautious to the end!---he really was some random Obama impersonator, she "joked."
Allahpundit, one of the few right wingers we can read, said:
I hereby offer one of my kidneys in exchange for the audio. Mint condition! Aside from a little Jack Daniel’s damage....
Eventually she took the call — and still didn’t totally believe it was him. She’s the anti-Palin! Exit question: Doesn’t she know that there’s no such thing as a truly great Obama impersonator?
BONUS!: Allahpundit's link will take you to some clips of some mind-blowingly awful Obama impersonators---much worse than that SNL guy---you can watch through your fingers till they go away again.
British commentator Ian Leslie said sympathetically, also blaming the a-few-ice-bricks-short-of-an-igloo Alaskan governor. "Nobody likes being caught out by a prankster, as Sarah Palin was during the election."
Sadly it turns out that there are also opportunities for being ridiculed all over the interwebs if you take your wariness too far. Nowadays even laudable caution can become laughable caution if you carry it too far.
Memeorandum has more here.
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