Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the ranking Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee is among a bipartisan group critical of President Obama's Presidential Medal of Freedom pick, Mary Robinson.  

She issued the following statement:

Mary Robinson was the poster-child for the anti-Israel bias that pervades the United Nations system.

During her tenure as High Commissioner, she never missed an opportunity to single out Israel for condemnation, while often excusing violent Palestinian extremism.

Just recently, Robinson bordered on bigotry when she blamed opposition to this award on 'bullying by certain elements of the Jewish community.' Under her leadership - or lack thereof - Durban I was hijacked by the world's most intolerant regimes and transformed from an anti-racism conference into an anti-Israel, anti-Semitic, anti-American hate-fest.

The U.S. did the right thing by walking out - and by staying away from a biased Durban Review Conference that reaffirmed Durban I's declaration. The U.S. can do the right thing again by denying Robinson this undeserved honor.  The cause of freedom is too important to be linked with Mary Robinson.

She joins Rep. Shelly Berkley, Rep. Eliot Engel, Rep. Peter King, and Sen. Kit Bond, read it here.