People trying to oppose Tanith Belbin's U.S. citizenship

gkelly · Dec 1, 2005

euterpe said:
The silence from the Mitchells and from the team itself speaks volumes.

The team itself has been spending most of the past two weeks traveling to and from and competing in Russia. Were they supposed to issue a press release from the airplane? I suspect that ESPN talked to them there and will give us their response on the Cup of Russia broadcast next week.

swannanoa54 · Dec 1, 2005

Frau Muller said:
Yup - it's called "LIFE's MOST EMBARRASSING MOMENTS"! As in being caught red-handed doing nasty-nasty stuff. How much you wanna bet that the team will withdraw from Nationals, out of sheer shame...and, if they don't, they have GALL (as in GALLer...get it?).

Bad Boys, Bad Boys,
What ya gonna do when they come for you?
Bad Boys, Bad Boys

What "nasty nasty stuff" have they done? I'm mean the team, not the parents. And FWIW, I don't think what the parents did was "nasty nasty". Unreasonable and unconscionable, but not "nasty nasty". And why should the team be ashamed? Aren't you visiting the sins of the parents onto the children who may, or may not, have known what Mitchell's parents were gonna do? Aren't you making them guilty without any PROOF? Since when is silence proof of guilt? It isn't proof of anything. And even if they did know, who's to say they didn't try to talk the parents out of sending the letter? Maybe they did, but you know how parents are. Or maybe you don't.

I, personally, wouldn't want to embarrass my children if I could help it. And I'd certainly listen to them if they said any action of mine was going to embarrass them. Maybe these parents just did this while the skaters were out of the country competing. It is quite possible Mitchell had no time to tell his parents to leave it alone.

euterpe · Dec 1, 2005

Now that ABC/ESPN has its hooks into this story, you know they will play it for all it's worth, all the way through the Grand Prix and into Nationals. The parents did an incredibly stupid, selfish thing and the skaters are the ones who will suffer for it, because the skaters are the ones in the public eye.

The team is bound to be the focus of media attention during Nationals. At the very least, they will feel embarrassed and uncomfortable, and that is not a good frame of mind to be in during a competition (and that is assuming they had nothing to do with the letter-writing campaign and did not support it in any way).

If Tanith and Max do not get their citizenship on time (and they must have it by January 10, during Nationals), there will be a media circus and the G-R/M team will be the goat, deserved or not.

ATW27 · Dec 1, 2005

You have to wonder if ESPN/ABC jumped on this story because they wanted something sensational going into the Olympics, since the season has been pretty much 'steady as she goes' so far I think. You know, something to create headlines and talk around the water cooler in the morning? Kind of like the whole Tonya and Nancy '94 flap, only smaller.

Andy W.

attyfan · Dec 1, 2005

Well, this citizenship issue is similar to what happened to Gorsha Sur in '94 -- and there have been so many other parallels to '94 that I fully expect someone to get whacked, and, a competitor to get blamed -- even though the main beneficiary of another whack would be the ISU, the federations, and/or the TV networks.

Ptichka · Dec 1, 2005

ATW27 said:
You have to wonder if ESPN/ABC jumped on this story because they wanted something sensational going into the Olympics, since the season has been pretty much 'steady as she goes' so far I think. You know, something to create headlines and talk around the water cooler in the morning? Kind of like the whole Tonya and Nancy '94 flap, only smaller.

Great point. Does seem like there is way more hoopla around this than it deserves.

pennyfromheaven · Dec 1, 2005

Hmmm....I would like to know who told ESPN about the letter, does anyone know who the 'source' of that was?? I think that is an important piece of information.

attyfan · Dec 1, 2005

Here is a link to a new article, with the statement from G-R & M:

http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/news/story?id=2244247

Mathman · Dec 1, 2005

The plot thickens. This article still does not say to whom the email was sent or who spilled the beans to ESPN.

Blue Bead · Dec 1, 2005

Thanks attyfan for the link to this latest article.

One of the things which baffles me in this latest information concerns the statement that David's mother's letter wasn't an attack on Tanith and Ben. If it wasn't then, what was it and who was it directed towards? People don't pursue this sort of thing without a very definite reason in mind. And I'm not sure I buy the statement "It was no more than an expression of feeling by a loving and supportive parent...." Even though I realize parents do dumb stuff like this to their children, most parents do not resort to actions of this magnitude.

While this new letter states that they won't pursue anything to influence Tanith's attempt to get expedited citizenship, they certainly have no problems with doing everything in their power to prevent her from getting it. There's some old adage along the lines of "With friends like that, who needs enemies?" It appears to fill the bill in this case too. IMHO the actions of the Mitchell camp is not an example of good sportsmanship. This action which directly affects Tanith is just wrong!

I wonder what else was included in this 6 page report mentioned in the article?

ladybug · Dec 2, 2005

Backstage at Nationals should be interesting this year when both teams come face to face.

Tonichelle · Dec 2, 2005

Ptichka said:
Great point. Does seem like there is way more hoopla around this than it deserves.

But is ESPN/ABC making it into hoopla, or are the skating boards... aside from here and other boards... there's been no other mention of it save for the original report and one new article by ESPN lol

this would have gotten hoopla no matter who reported it because it's that sort of news that message boards seem to just eat up :laugh:

jesslily · Dec 2, 2005

I just read the article this morning. David Mitchell's mom is too much. Clearly she is just trying hard not letting Belbin to get her citizenship. So her son and Loren will definitely get the chance to go to Olympics. From this incident you can tell some crazy skating parents are trying to do every thing on earth they can think of to get their kids on top of the game.

euterpe · Dec 2, 2005

The latest:

Loren Galler-Rabinowitz and David Mitchell respond to the ESPN story.

http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/news/story?id=2244247

While they defend Mrs. Mitchell's letter,

"...We are concerned that Lynn Mitchell's letter to Senator Clinton has been viewed by some as a personal attack on Ben and Tanith. It was not and is not. It was no more than an expression of feeling by a loving and supportive parent, something for which no parent should be attacked."

Having seen the contents of the letter, it was not so much an 'expression of feeling' but a xenophobic attack on people of ability who do not happen to be born in the USA.

David and Loren seem to indicate they are not directly implicated in the letter writing campaign.

"We will not pursue any avenue to influence Tanith's bid for expedited citizenship. "

Of course, while they speak of their admiration and respect for Tanith Belbin, there is no mention of Max Zavozin, who with his partner Morgan Matthews, is a direct competitor for that third Olympic spot, and who will also become a citizen if the legislation goes through.

What I would have liked to have seen in their statement was that they wanted to win a spot on the Olympic team by virtue of their talent and hard work. But that was not mentioned at all.

To me, this just looks like "don't blame us, we didn't do it". It still reads as if they will not actively support the attempts to stop the legislation, but do not see anything wrong with it.

R.D. · Dec 2, 2005

Didn't the legislation fall through?

I thought initially that because of this, B & A wouldn't have gone to the OLYs. Are these people THAT concerned about it? I smell desperation.

Joesitz (RIP) · Dec 2, 2005

euterpe said:
Of course, while they speak of their admiration and respect for Tanith Belbin, there is no mention of Max Zavozin, who with his partner Morgan Matthews, is a direct competitor for that third Olympic spot, and who will also become a citizen if the legislation goes through.

Come to think of it, Matthews and Zavozin haven't said anything about this. Do you think they are hoping that Mrs. Miller's strategy works and they can enjoy the result and not have to appear mean to the skating world?

Joe

euterpe · Dec 2, 2005

Joesitz said:
Come to think of it, Matthews and Zavozin haven't said anything about this. Do you think they are hoping that Mrs. Miller's strategy works and they can enjoy the result and not have to appear mean to the skating world?
Joe

I don't understand your comment. WHO is "Mrs. Miller" and what is her strategy?

The legislation, an appropriations bill with the citizenship provision attached as an amendment, is still before Congress, and it is still possible that it will be passed and signed by the President in time for Tanith and Max to get their citizenship by January 10th. It may well be that the ESPN story will actually help get public attention and speed up the process.

The measure will allow both Tanith Belbin and Maxim Zavozin to become citizens. What the amendment does is extend the provisions of a bill passed after 9/11 that expedited citizenship for "persons of extraordinary ability", to those who had applied for citizenship on that basis before 9/11. Many persons of extraordinary ability who applied for citizenship after 9/11 have long since received their citizenship, while Belbin, Zavozin and hundreds of others who applied before 9/11 are still waiting. Mrs. MITCHELL wants them put on hold.

There is no reason for Max Zavozin or Tanith Belbin to comment on this issue. They are not the ones who put the legislation forward. In fact, Belbin and Agosto have said they do not expect to be going to Torino, that there was hope, but they were not counting on it. Senator Levin volunteered to draft and sponsor the legislation on their behalf.

Mrs. MITCHELL wants the legislation stopped for her own selfish reasons and has made it clear that she doesn't want persons not born in the US getting places on the Olympic team when there are teams with TWO "US born citizens" who could go (meaning her son and Loren Galler-Rabinowitz). Obviously the woman has no faith in the talents of her son and his partner to win a seat on the team by their own efforts, so she is trying to make sure that two more qualified teams will be eliminated from consideration.

Ptichka · Dec 2, 2005

Joesitz said:
Come to think of it, Matthews and Zavozin haven't said anything about this. Do you think they are hoping that Mrs. Miller's strategy works and they can enjoy the result and not have to appear mean to the skating world?

Joe, Zavozin is in the same boat with Belbin. If Tanith gets her citizenship, so does Max; if she doesn't, he doesn't either.

R.D. · Dec 2, 2005

Huh? Didn't someone post that the bill failed? I didn't know the bill was still around.

If we learn anything, it's that government processes aren't necessarily the fastest. I absolutely don't count on the bill passing in time. Anything can happen, but there's only a month left. Not to mention our government has MORE IMPORTANT things to attend to.

Unlike these guys, though, I would not do anything to ACTIVELY stop this bill from being passed, even though technically I'm against it (although I don't care it if goes either way, it's more about the active push of the bill than the bill itself).

And euterpe- ITA.

Mathman · Dec 2, 2005

Red Dog said:
Huh? Didn't someone post that the bill failed? I didn't know the bill was still around.

RD, this citizenship bill was attached as a rider to a big appropriations bill. The bill passed the senate but was defeated in the house. That is, the bill was voted down because the members of congress didn't like the appropriations bill as a whole. Most of them probably didn't even know they were voting on a citizenship issue at all.

This is the same strategy that congresspeople use to get big pork barrel projects awarded to their home constitency. They slip in an ammendment to some other bill, hope nobody notices, and then try to ride the coattails of the primary piece of legislation.

This sounds shady, but it is done all the time. The alternative is to initiate legislation in is own right, go through endless subcommittee meetings, etc., etc., and probably have your bill just disappear without ever coming to the floor for a vote.

MM

People trying to oppose Tanith Belbin's U.S. citizenship

gkelly

swannanoa54

euterpe

ATW27

attyfan

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Ptichka

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pennyfromheaven

attyfan

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Mathman

Blue Bead

ladybug

Tonichelle

Idita-Rock-n-Roll

jesslily

euterpe

R.D.

Joesitz (RIP)

euterpe

Ptichka

Forum translator

R.D.

Mathman

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