http://www.rollcall.com/issues/50_5/news/6198-1.html (subscription required)
Last week in Edinburgh, Scotland, Alcee Hastings attended the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe as a Member of the House of Representatives. While there, though, he picked up a slightly loftier title: Mr. President.
On Friday, following a week of intense campaigning by fellow politicians on the other side of the pond, Hastings, a six-term Democrat from Florida, easily bested candidates from Finland and France to become president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the OSCE — a predominantly European group that also includes legislators from the United States, Canada and Central Asian republics. The 55-nation organization focuses on arms control, diplomacy, human rights, election monitoring and other security issues.
“It’s much more intense than running
and speaking to a church or standing out in front of a shopping mall handing out literature to strangers,” Hastings said of his brief campaign, which largely consisted of meet-and-greets over coffee and tea with other parliamentary members.
Hastings — who ran on a platform that emphasized the importance of combating racism, anti-Semitism and xenophobia in the OSCE region — said his election symbolized the beginning of a thaw in U.S.-European relations, which have grown frosty in recent years due to disagreements over a range of issues, especially the Iraq war.