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State rep. ‘flabbergasted’ Obama call wasn’t prank

By Staff | Dec 5, 2008

MIAMI (AP) – First she hung up on President-elect Barack Obama – twice. Now Republican Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen is fielding calls from angry constituents who think she did it on purpose.

The Miami congresswoman says she and the Democrat had a good laugh Wednesday after she apologized profusely for assuming his calls were a prank.

“I was just flabbergasted,” Ros-Lehtinen said Thursday. “I just hung up on the most powerful man on earth – twice.”

She said Obama called to congratulate her on her re-election, saying he was looking forward to working with her as the ranking Republican member of the House Foreign Affairs committee.

But she assumed it was a radio station prank. Typically, when high-ranking officials call, an aide calls in advance to verify. That was the procedure recently when Ros-Lehtinen received a call from Sen. Hillary Clinton.

“But this one was just out of the blue he’s calling me. And I said, ‘Boy, you’re a much better impersonator than that guy on Saturday Night Live,’ and he’s laughing and he’s thinking I’m kidding,” she said.

Obama tried convincing her that he truly was the president-elect, but Ros-Lehtinen says she “wished him the best of luck and told him I was going to hang up on him.”

A few minutes later, Rahm Emanuel, Obama’s chief of staff, called the congresswoman with Obama on the line to tell her it wasn’t a joke.

“I said I really do appreciate it. I love these pranks more than anybody and I’m honored that you would prank me, but I’m gonna hang up.”

And she did.

It took a call from Rep. Howard Berman, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, to persuade Ros-Lehtinen that Obama really did want to talk to her. She asked Berman to tell her an inside joke about a colleague that only they would know to make sure the call was legitimate.