Vito Fossella Looking To Run Again in 2010? And What About Norm Coleman's Corruption Case?

Republicans, always and forever the America First Party, are happy as clams about Rod Blagojevich's arrest. In their dreams the worm has turned and the pendulum has swung. But if they were smart they'd forget about Blagojevich and William Jefferson and let the law take care of those two and instead concentrate of Nancy Pelosi's stubborn refusal to take hard lines on unindicted criminals like Charlie Rangel, George Bush and Dick Cheney. Rangel should have been forced out of his Ways & Means Chair months ago and Pelosi's gross dereliction of duty inherent in preventing the impeachment of Bush and Cheney makes her an accessory after the fact in their long catalogue of crimes. And over on the Senate side, I believe Ted Stevens' 7 criminal indictments were greeted not with a serious ethics investigation but with a standing ovation. There are tapes of that; none of those people applauding him should be eligible to continue serving in the Senate. Why can't Harry Reid keep that body of geezers in line?

And speaking of people who shouldn't be eligible to serve in Congress, Vito Fossella hasn't even served his 5 days in jail yet-- let alone explained why he happens to have two families, one in NY and one in northern Virginia-- and he's already serving everyone in Staten Island who will come bagels and lox. His brunch this Sunday is widely viewed as a first dip of the toe back into the addictive waters of politics for the disgraced Fossella.

[I]t seems that event organizers, including members of the Fossella family, are having difficulty getting ordinary rank-and-file Republicans to come to the 11:30 a.m. event.

"They're having trouble getting people," said source with knowledge of the event. "Apparently they're not getting enthusiasm. Don't forget, it's Christmas time. On the other hand, a lot of people might be thinking, 'What can he do for me now?'"

...The Fossellas are billing the Hilton soiree as "thank you" party for supporters, but some believe that Fossella is using the shindig as a way to gauge support for a possible run at McMahon in 2010.

If that's the case, insiders said, Fossella might be disappointed at the turnout, especially with Republicans, including elected officials, being pressed to bring along enough people to stock a table of 12.

"I'm having a hard time," admitted one Republican. "It's, like, 10 days from Christmas. People are going to be away or putting up their trees, or shopping."

Any poor attendance at the brunch should be attributed to the holiday season, he hastened to add, and shouldn't be used as a measure of Fossella's popularity.

Not every Republican sees it quite that way. In fact, the top GOP dog on Staten Island, Guy Molinari, seems to feel that Fossella's future in politics hinges on the brunch. "The bottom line is how many people show up to his event. If a lot of people show up, it would be an indication that he’s very popular and would be a formidable candidate.” With $220,000 in his election fund and a household name, Fossella is eager to challenge conservative Democratic freshman Michael McMahon in 2010. But former state Assemblyman/hot dog vendor Bob Straniere, who ran against McMahon last month and was tounced 105,128- 57,530, is less optimistic about the Republican Party's future in the Staten Isaldn/Brooklyn district. “Republicans can still succeed selectively, but the congressional seat is now lost forever,” he told yesterday's Hill.

And while we're on the subject of political corruption and investigations thereof, many outside of Minnesota are unaware that the intense vote count battle between Al Franken and Norm Coleman is taking place in the context of an FBI investigation into Coleman's corrupt behavior. One of Coleman's cronies, Nasser Kazeminy, paid the senator off, to the tune of at least $100,000, through Coleman's wife, Laurie, who has acted as a kind of moll in a crime syndicate, not unlike John Doolittle's wife and Tom Delay's wife.

Kazeminy tried improperly to send money from his company in Texas to Coleman through Coleman's wife's insurance company in Minneapolis and then forged a bogus contract in an attempt to cover-up the improprieties. Kazeminy has also been flying Coleman and his family around on private planes.

Some in Minnesota are comparing Coleman's corruption-- still in the investigation stages-- with Blagojevich's corruption, now being played out on the front pages on the nation's mass media.

In both cases, the charges are that illegal payoffs to the elected official would be masked as payment of work performed by the wife. The monetary amounts are in the same ballpark: Laurie Coleman’s company received $75,000 and was to be paid $25,000, while the salary proposed for Patricia Blagojevich ran as high as $150,000.

One difference: In the Colemans’ case, payments-- which haven’t been shown to be illegal, and whose propriety Sen. Coleman has insisted on-- were actually made, not just talked about during wiretapped conversations.

...Here are allegations concerning Laurie Coleman contained in the first of two lawsuits filed in Texas against Coleman benefactor and family friend Nasser Kazaminy and Deep Marine Technologies, Incorporated (DMT):

… Kazeminy told Mr. McKim [former CEO of DMT] that he [Kazeminy] would make sure there was paperwork to make it appear as though the payments were in connection with legitimate transactions, explaining further that Senator Coleman’s wife, Laurie, worked for the Hays Companies (”Hays”), an insurance broker in Minneapolis, and the payments could be made to Hays for insurance…

Hays provides risk management, insurance, and employee benefits consulting. It is also the employer of Senator Coleman’s wife, Laurie, who is an aspiring actress and holds no insurance licenses in the State of Texas. Kazeminy informed Messrs. McKim and [former DMT CFO B.J.] Thomas that Hays would funnel the money from DMT to Senator Coleman through the payment of compensation to his wife, Laurie, and that there was nothing to worry about. Laurie Coleman never provided any type of services or products to DMT…

Specifically, Defendants breached their fiduciary duties by: (1) directing improper payments to Hays for the benefit Senator Norm Coleman [sic] and his spouse for no legitimate business purpose …

Staten Island-- The Craziest Congressional Race Anywhere

On Saturday we explained why the much-hated Republican hot dog vendor-- hated by Republicans-- had virtually no chance of winning the Staten Island (plus a bit of Brooklyn) congressional seat that was abandoned by Bush rubber stamp Vito Fossella after he was caught with two families. We accepted that the likely next congressman would be, by default, a very conservative Democratic hack from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party, Michael McMahon.

But then there was a new and bizarre development. On Sunday, some Fossella cronies sent up a trial balloon that their man was back in the race and that the hot dog vendor was being convinced to give up his pointless place on the ballot-- in return for a judicial appointment.

"It's absolutely true," a source close to Fossella said of rumors that Fossella and his allies are quietly plotting his comeback.

Voters in the 13th Congressional District got polling calls about Fossella this weekend, the Staten Island Advance reported Sunday.

There's only one problem: The election lineup is already set.

...A candidate can only be bumped off the ballot now if they die, move out of state or are nominated to run for a judgeship.

Both Straniere and Atanasio are lawyers and eligible for the bench - and there are plenty of open races throughout the city and state.

Straniere isn't universally supported by Staten Island Republicans. He only got the party's nod after the abrupt death of Frank Powers, its first-choice pick. Even then, insiders suspected Straniere's ability to switch and run for a judgeship was part of his appeal.

With Fossella's trial scheduled for October-- right in the midst of an election campaign-- many thought this was an impossible scenario... although it is Staten Island. But then late yesterday, Fossella issued a statement saying he's not running after all.

“I am deeply humbled by the outpouring of support that I have received from people throughout the district through these difficult times, but I am not a candidate for Congress,” Mr. Fossella said in a statement released by his office. “As I have stated before, my priorities are my family and serving the people of Staten Island and Brooklyn.”

Obviously Fossella being back in Congress and him "serving the people of Staten Island and Brooklyn" are mutually exclusive. Straniere, the hot dog vendor, breathed a sigh of relief when he was informed that he could continue his hopeless run for Congress/. “I am the Republican candidate in the 13th Congressional District,” he said in an interview on Monday afternoon. “I won overwhelmingly in the Republican primary and I’m running for Congress. I have been strongly supported by the Fossella family. In fact, the congressman’s father was with me on primary night. I have no idea where these rumors come from.”

Molinari: Most Republicans "Would Rather Vote For A Democrat Than" Than The Only Republican Who Wants To Run For Fossella's Seat

GOP stuck with Bob Straniere, a Manhattan hot dog peddler

Like we hinted over the weekend, the NRCC has adopted a Stalinist system for picking their congressional candidates. John Boehner and Tom Cole are slugging it out over the new policy, though both essentially agree that if you leave it to the crazed lunatic fringe that the GOP has become, they will keep picking extremist losers like the ones defeated in overwhelmingly Republican districts in Mississippi, Louisiana and Illinois. Boehner's solution is to just back corporatists like himself and let the base grouse about not having bigots, racists and religionist nuts to vote for.

But, as John Steinbeck once mentioned, "the best-laid plan or mice, men and boners, go oft awry." These days, for poor Boehner, the key word there is "oft." And as our pals at the Albany Project pointed out today, Boehner's hopes for instituting his new Stalinist policy in Staten Island hit a brick wall: none of his top choices to replace two-families Fossella are eager to play the roll of sacrificial lamb in a year shaping up to be the worst for the Republican Party since the 1930s.

The GOP recruiting meltdown in NY-13 continues. It's becoming increasingly obvious that there just isn't any top line Republican in the district that is willing to run for this seat. After their best bet, Staten Island DA Dan Donovan took a pass, we learned that their Plan B, state Senator Andrew Lanza might want the job, but his Senate majority is under siege and needs all hands on deck this fall for what is shaping up to be an epic battle for control of that chamber. (And, let's face it, they can't recruit for crap for the state Senate this year either.) Their Plan C, County Clerk Stephen Fiala, decided better of a run over the weekend and now the only Republican making overt noises about running (again) is a guy the Staten Island GOP absolutely despises, former Assemblyman Robert Straniere.

Today's NY Times agrees: "Finding a candidate to replace Representative Vito J. Fossella, who will step down at the end of the year, is proving much harder than Republican Party leaders ever imagined... 'We’re hurting,' said Guy V. Molinari, the former Staten Island borough president and dean of the island’s Republicans. 'I think that the Congressional seat is probably the most coveted seat locally. And yet, with the vacancy approaching, those that we thought would be the leading candidates in this case, particularly the incumbent elected officials, are taking a pass.'”

So let's see how Stalinism is working out for the GOP on Staten Island. Boehner's dream candidate, D.A. Daniel Donovan Jr thanked him and said "no thanks." He was quickly followed by Stephen Fiala, the Staten Island county clerk, James Oddo, Republican leader in the City Council, James Simpson, administrator of the Federal Transit Administration, and Jamshad Wyne, someone's rich doctor. So the one guy who does want the gig is the loony Robert Straniere, who was defeated in both his most recent GOP primaries.

Republican leaders seemed cool if not hostile to the idea of Mr. Straniere as a candidate. They pointed out that he had long feuded with other party officials, particularly with Congressman Fossella and Mr. Molinari.

In fact, Mr. Molinari described Mr. Straniere’s chances of being supported by the Republican leadership as “impossible.” He said that Mr. Straniere “would not be at all acceptable to the Republican Party. I would speculate that 98 percent of the Republican County Committee would say, ‘No dice.’ They would rather vote for a Democrat than for Straniere.”

Maybe Boehner and Cole can ask Jim Oberweis or Woody KKK-pecker to move to Staten Island and try there.

CAN WE HEAR A FEW BARS OF "ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST" IN HONOR OF VITO FOSSELLA

As we predicted last week, he isn't going to resign before July, which would give Governor Paterson an opportunity to call a special election. Instead he'll just resign after that (or maybe stick it out until January)-- and, of course, not run in November. He sat down with the Staten Island Advance and explained that he won't be seeking a sixth term. "After a great deal of consideration, I have made the decision not to seek re-election to the United States House of Representatives this November. This choice was an extremely difficult one, balanced between my dedication to service to our great nation and the need to concentrate on healing the wounds that I have caused to my wife and family." He doesn't mention which wife or which family.

This morning's NY Times speculates that the pressure he was getting from panic-stricken Republicans in Washington was too much for him to resist. John Boehner has already picked a successor, Staten Island D.A., Daniel M. Donovan

Mr. Fossella’s decision comes just before the Staten Island Republican Party’s executive committee is to interview candidates for office-- a meeting set for Wednesday. It also comes a few weeks before candidates for office in the fall are required to begin collecting signatures for petitions to be eligible to run.

The decision also sends tremors through the Republican Party on Staten Island, as it seeks to find a replacement on the party’s ballot for Mr. Fossella in November.

Another potential Republican candidate is state Senator Andrew D. Lanza, a longtime friend of Mr. Fossella’s. But Mr. Lanza would face intense pressure from Republican leaders in Albany, who are highly reluctant to see anything that might weaken their already slim majority in Albany.

Two Democrats are seeking the congressional seat: Stephen A. Harrison, a Brooklyn lawyer who fared better than previous opponents, winning 43 percent of the vote. The other is City Councilman Domenic M. Recchia Jr.

For years, Mr. Fossella has presented himself as a family-values moderate Republican. He has also been a strong supporter of President Bush and Vice President Cheney.

But the Congressman has been criticized by Democrats, who contend that his continued support of the war in Iraq has put him out of touch with the district.

Furthermore, they say, Staten Island has been hit hard by the nation’s mortgage crisis and health care has deteriorated.

The NY Daily News has a juicier version of the story and, unlike the Old Gray Lady, mentions "love child" and the "love junkets" and includes a photo of his other wife.

Of pals at the Albany Project have all the details of the Democrats and Republicans tossing their hats into the ring now that Fossella has admitted it's over.

GO, VITO, GO! FOSSELLA WANTS TO RUN AGAIN

One of my sisters lives on Staten Island. She and her husband are more Republican than Democrat and we've had our disagreements over the years. But the other day my sister told me that she-- and everyone she knows, particularly women-- have had it with their two-timin' congressman, Vito Fossella. They want him out. Vito wants to stay. The national Republican Party is not happy.

After the electoral debacles in safe red districts in Illinois, Louisiana and Mississippi, NRCC head Tom Cole (R-OK) went through a song and dance about all the reasons Republicans can expect sharp losses in November and then he added that another scandal would sink the party. On cue... Vito Fossella staggered, drunk and disorderly onto the national stage to announce that he has two families, one on Staten Island and one more conveniently located near the office. House Minority leader John Boehner (R-OH) told him to resign. He hunkered down in Staten Island with his cronies and decided to see if he could tough it out. Today's NY Times reports that his toughing it out is especially tough on the tottering GOP.

There has been nothing but silence coming from the embattled Staten Island congressman, Vito J. Fossella, regarding his plans to run for re-election this year. And that uncertainty has caused waves of concern not only among Republicans in New York City, but in Washington as well.

All signs indicate that Mr. Fossella, a Republican who was arrested in Virginia on May 1 on a drunken driving charge and then admitted to fathering a child out of wedlock, is leaning toward running for a sixth term in November. He has been telling friends and advisers that he thinks he can win. And though he canceled a fund-raiser scheduled for this past weekend, he has five or six events planned for the coming month.

...[F]or all his popularity on Staten Island, long a Republican stronghold, Mr. Fossella, 43, faces daunting obstacles. If convicted of drunken driving, he would have to serve a mandatory five-day jail sentence. His acknowledgment of an extramarital affair-- he has three children with his [legal] wife, Mary Pat-- has clearly upset many voters in his conservative-leaning district.

Boehner has been conspiring with Staten Island District Attorney Daniel Donovan to push Fossella out of the race, a race, one of Fossella's mentors, Staten Island GOP éminence grise Guy Molinari, says won't be easy considering that 2008 “is a bad Republican year, politically, and that doesn’t help matters.” Molinari says he's sticking with Fossella and that Fossella still has a chance to be re-elected-- Staten Island isn't known for having the sharpest knives in the drawer-- but that it will cost a lot more money than usual, money the NRCC doesn't have-- and probably wouldn't give Fossella even if it did. Most local Repugs are tip-toeing around the tulips and the party is utterly paralyzed and floundering. "Even Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who has been a reliable source of campaign money and support for Mr. Fossella in the past, said he was uncertain whether he would support the congressman in a re-election campaign."

In his more recent elections, he has continued to win, but against opponents who have done increasingly well. Indeed, some Democratic leaders have said privately that they hope Mr. Fossella decides to run again, suggesting that the scandals would do nothing but help their cause.

Stephen A. Harrison, a Brooklyn lawyer who was Mr. Fossella’s Democratic opponent in 2006 and hopes to challenge him again this year, has stopped short of calling for Mr. Fossella to resign or step down after his present term. In a statement, Mr. Harrison said, “If he decides to run, the people will decide in November if his recent behavior and revelations should disqualify him from continuing in office.”

He added: “There are great issues to be debated in this campaign-- the war in Iraq, health care, the economy, the environment and energy, just to name a few. It is now my intention to get past this distraction and return to those issues.”

It remains to be seen whether the Congressional race will actually focus on those issues. For now, the attention seems to be firmly on Mr. Fossella rather than his opponents, or the issues.

Meanwhile CREW filed an ethics complaint against Fossella because he used taxpayer funds to court his illegal second wife on whirlwind tours around Europe.

I'M AGAINST MARRIAGE-- EXCEPT FOR PEOPLE WHO WANT TO GET MARRIED

I thought gays who wanted to enlist in the military were nuts but I certainly supported their right to be as do what they felt they had to do or wanted to do. Same with marriage. I never could quite understand why people desired to go voluntarily into that prison, especially not gays who had such an ironclad excuse. (I can't remember all the time I told guys that I would love to marry them if only... Oh, yeah, if only it was for a week.) But whether someone is straight or gay, it should be their own choice, certainly not the government's. So, as ruinful as this may be to my old conceptions of a gay lifestyle as part of an outlaw, or at least a bohemian, culture, I'm genuinely happy for all the lesbians and delusional gay males-- yes, yes, I apologize-- who want to tie themselves in knots. The California Supreme Court, in a 4-3 ruling by the mostly Republican judges, overturned the ban on gay marriage. The San Francisco Chronicle:

Gays and lesbians have a constitutional right to marry in California, the state Supreme Court said today in a historic ruling that could be repudiated by the voters in November.

In a 4-3 decision, the justices said the state's ban on same-sex marriage violates the "fundamental constitutional right to form a family relationship." The ruling is likely to flood county courthouses with applications from couples newly eligible to marry when the decision takes effect in 30 days.

Republican groups are already hysterical and organizing a referendum that would amend the state's constitution. Twenty-seven states have already passed constitutional amendments to prohibit gay marriage. They'll be disappointed with their governor's statement today. Schwarzenegger: "I respect the Court’s decision and as Governor, I will uphold its ruling.  Also, as I have said in the past, I will not support an amendment to the constitution that would overturn this state Supreme Court ruling.” 

The coming last-ditch battle with wingnuts and hate-obsessed religionist fanatics reminds me of Vito Fossella's sick and miserable existence. The Republican Family Values hypocrite had two families, one on Staten Island and on near the office. While building a shameful and totally cynical political career on his professed devotion to "family values" (and, of course, virulent homophobia), Fossella has been very pointedly trying to destroy the lives of his own gay family. He has a lesbian sister who, with her partner, has adopted twins. Fossella has sought to make adoption by gay couples illegal. More relevant to today's California ruling, in the recent past Fossella has "demanded housing funds be held back from San Francisco unless it repealed its domestic partnership law." I guess this is ratcheted up a bit now-- although he appears to have enough of his own problems now so that he may not be putting too much energy into harassing gay families.


UPDATE: BEST ANALYSIS

Glenn's got a great in-depth look at what the ruling means-- and doesn't mean-- over at Salon... with 5 updates (mostly about the blind anger and ignorance on the far right)!

FOSSELLA MESS JUST KEEPS GETTING MESSIER AND MESSIER

Will Fossella be an excuse in Mississippi tomorrow?

Inside the Beltway Republican leaders, desperate to get Fossella and the image of drunken and hypocritical Republican congressmen with multiple wives out of the news as fast as possible, are threatening Fossella with serious criminal actions if he doesn't resign and making sure he knows there will be no financial support for him from the GOP. (Over the weekend he floated trial balloons about continuing on as a member of Congress and of even running again in November, trial balloons that were bolstered by a SUSA poll that shows Staten Island constituents still support him. Democrats are praying that he stays in the race as well.) This morning CREW called for Fossella to resign; wow, they agree with Boehner!

The serious criminal action alluded to above involves Fossella's boondoggle trips to Europe with his mistress-- at taxpayer expense. This morning's NY Daily News is all over it.

Democratic and GOP congressional officials are scrutinizing Rep. Vito Fossella's mysterious and pricey January 2003 trip to France, the Daily News has learned.

He was the sole lawmaker authorized to go-- and his mistress is suspected of joining him.

The Staten Island Republican visited La Hague, France, supposedly on a "fact-finding" mission.

Lawmakers commonly visit La Hague to tour its nuclear fuel reprocessing plants, which have 6,000 people on its payroll, making it the largest employer in the region.

But "it's highly unusual for a member to go on the France trip alone, as he did," said a committee source.

Now the question is whether Fossella was less interested in nuclear power than in fueling a relationship with retired Air Force Col. Laura Fay: Last week he admitted fathering Fay's 3-year-old daughter.

...House leaders are also eying Fossella's other overseas jaunts, since Fay is known to have traveled with him on official business more than once.

Fossella could be ordered to repay taxpayers for his whopping travel expenses if they conclude he mingled pleasure with business, sources said.

Team Fossella has refused to answer questions about the France trip, despite discrepancies in his official records.

Not that Fossella is the first Republican elected official in NY with multiple families. Way back in 1987 the Republican Party County chairman of the Bronx, state Senator Guy Velella, admitted he had two families, a legal wife and 4 children in NYC and a girlfriend and child in Albany, more conveniently situated. He was re-elected several times but was finally defeated after an unrelated criminal episode came out regarding fixed contracts and other typically GOP shenanigans.

Perhaps more damaging to Fossella's determination to rescue his political career are the reports that his wife (the legal wife, Mary Pat) is going to divorce him for adultry. The longtime "family values" Republican has been living a double lie, telling each woman that she was the only one.

A close family friend said Fossella's wife was considering divorce - and if so, planned to go after the house and custody of the couple's three children.

"She's mad," said the source, who asked not to be identified. "She wants to move on."

Fossella's court appearance for his drunken driving charges, originally scheduled for today, has been postponed.


UPDATE: VITO DOESN'T LOVE ALL WOMEN-- HE HATES HIS GAY SISTER

Self-righteous prig that he is, Mr. Two-Family Values Fossella "shuns his gay sister, Victoria Fossella refusing to go to family events if she and her partner attend." A vicious homophobe bordering on mental illness, Fossella "demanded housing funds be held back from San Francisco unless it repealed its domestic partnership law" and he "voted for the Marriage Protection Amendment, a federal prohibition on gay marriage." Most repulsive of all-- and despite his sister and her partner having adopted twins-- Fossella "voted to prohibit any funding for joint adoptions by gay couples."

FOSSELLA, FACING AT LEAST ONE DIVORCE, SAYS HE WON'T GIVE UP HIS SEAT-- AT LEAST NOT UNTIL AFTER JULY 1

While House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH), looking at a very real possibility that next year's Republican House caucus could be reduced by 2 or even 3 dozen members, has publicly asked Fossella to resign by Monday, not all wingnuts agree. The Staten Island GOP says they admire Fossella for apologizing. And two Fossella cronies, Long Island Rep. Peter King and Guy Molinari, have sent up trial balloons for Fossella to see if he could get away with staying in Congress-- and even running again in November!

According to the NY Daily News Fossella and Laura Fay flaunted their affair and the GOP leadership was not only aware of it, having witnessed them in action, but was concerned that Fossella would bring more disrepute on the already scandal plagued Republican caucus. Bigamy is a crime in Virginia and even in Staten Island most voters think one family per guy is the proper lifestyle. Fossella has always supported a definition of marriage as being between one man and one woman but never said anything about one man and two women. And both of his women are angry. The actual wife, Mary Pat, is talking divorce and now we learn that Fossella was lying to Laura Fay, telling her he and Mary Pat were separated. Today's Daily News speculates that "flowers and brunch aren't going to do it for Fossella this Mother's Day-- not after he admitted he could mark the occasion with either his wife or his mistress."

Fossella's furious wife is considering divorce after learning of his second family, a source said.
Laura Fay, the mother of his love child, also feels betrayed. She had believed Fossella when he claimed that he and Mary Pat were separated, a source said.

There's just not enough chocolate in the world to sugarcoat that.

Fossella's Mother's Day plans remained unknown, although one family friend, more aligned with the congressman's wife, offered a tongue-in-cheek suggestion.

"I just hope that he's got frequent flyer miles ... he's got to cover a lot of real estate," the friend said. "Maybe if he's taking the two moms out, he does an early bird special and an after-theater special."

Sources indicated Fossella was hiding out on Staten Island at his uncle's house, where the shades were pulled down tight.

Perhaps his congressional predecessor as Staten Island GOP top dog, Guy Molinari, was in there with him. "I got every indication that he plans to run again. He's not just inclined to run. He plans on running," said Molinari. He said Fossella is "emboldened" by all the support local Republicans are giving him. Meanwhile Boehner called Staten Island District Attorney Daniel Donovan and asked him to run for Fossella's congressional seat. "Donovan is an attractive option because of high name recognition-- and because of the contrast of a law-and-order official against a man arrested for drunken driving while en route to his second family, sources said."

If Fossella resigns before July 1, New York Governor Paterson could call a special election that would fill the congressional seat until the term ends this year and if a Democrat wins that election, he'd have the advantage of incumbency in November. But if Fossella resigns after July 1, as is thought likely, the seat would remain vacant until next January when whomever wins in November is sworn in.


A little personal note: my sister lives on Staten Island. I spoke with her today and asked her what her neighbors and colleagues think. She said all the women who work with her (in the public school system) are disgusted and outraged. She senses that many of the men are as well. She thinks Fossella should resign the same way Spitzer did and she thinks that's the general feeling in the district and completely the feeling among women.

REPUBLICAN PARTY'S LATEST SPIN CYCLE-- THEY'RE AGENTS OF CHANGE

We've tried to cover the jaw-dropping spin coming from the various committees that make up the Republican Party's Inside the Beltway Establishment as they make excuse after excuse for their abysmal losing streak in the Special elections of late. We even did a little video clip, a special one. Today's Washington Post finds we're not the only ones who think the GOP should stop spinning and start a process of serious self-examination.

Most party insiders pray that they'll manage to scrape by in the GOP stronghold in northern Mississippi and can banish the unpleasant idea of any kind introspective analysis for a few more months. But even as conservative and Stepford-like a hack as Texas' Jeb Hensarling realizes a time for reckoning is upon them: "It's a time of sober reflection and, to some extent, resolve. I hope these special elections are a wake-up call."

After the party was devastated and demoralized by shocking defeats in overwhelmingly Republican districts in Illinois and Louisiana NRCC chairman Tom Cole (R-OK) blamed the low calibre of Republican candidates, although not as a way of looking in the mirror and examining how extreme the party has become or how out of sync their positions are from the aspirations and judgments of everyday Americans. He mentioned that the party is out of money and that if they had another big messy scandal in the headlines they'd be sunk.

As if on cue, within days, the tale of Staten Island's hypocritical congressman Vito Fossella starts unfolding like a soap opera on TV. "Just when Republicans thought they had seen everything, Rep. Vito Fossella (R-N.Y.) admitted Thursday that he has a 3-year-old daughter from a long-running extramarital affair with a retired Air Force officer. Fossella, who is married and has three young children at home in Staten Island, is also facing drunken-driving charges in Virginia. GOP strategists are debating whether he should resign or announce that he will not seek reelection in November. Fossella's resignation [expected this week] would mean another special election, this one in the nation's most expensive media market."

If they lose Tuesday in Mississippi it will clearly be because they haven't learned anything at all from watching which way the wind is blowing. The NRCC and right-wing front groups are still pouring millions of dollars into the campaign to poison the atmosphere with irrelevant filth about Reverend Jeremiah Wright, as though that is going to make up for Republican policies that have wrecked the economy and left us stranded in a no-win war in Iraq.

Independent analysts agree that a loss Tuesday would leave Republicans with no excuses. They blamed poor candidates in races in Louisiana and Illinois, where the GOP lost a special election for the seat long held by former House speaker J. Dennis Hastert.

"The Republicans would be ignoring reality if they try to explain away this race," said Nathan Gonzales, political editor of the Rothenberg Political Report.
Since 1994, Republican Roger Wicker has been reelected to his House seat with between 63 and 79 percent of the vote.

But with Wicker appointed to the Senate to fill the seat vacated by Trent Lott, who retired, Republicans are having difficulty unifying behind Greg Davis, the mayor of Southaven, a Memphis suburb in the northwest corner of the 1st District. Davis beat a Republican from the eastern portion of the district in the March primary. That win puts Davis on the ballot in November, whether he wins or loses this week's special election.

Democrat Travis Childers, a court officer in Prentiss County, came within a few hundred votes of outright victory in the first round of special-election balloting April 22, prompting national Republicans to send out an SOS for Tuesday's runoff. Davis, the NRCC and conservative allies have flooded the airwaves with a multimillion-dollar campaign that tries to negatively tie Childers to Pelosi and Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.).

This is the second special election this month in which House Republicans have tried to turn the race into a referendum on a Democratic candidate's ties to Obama. The strategy was unsuccessful in Louisiana, but Republicans view the Mississippi district as more receptive because it is slightly more conservative and has fewer African American voters.

But while Tom Cole doubles down on the negative campaigning and puts the whole bankroll of Rev. Wright, less extremist minds within the party realize it's a strategy with little hope for success.

Tom Davis, who chaired the NRCC for four years, said he doubts the effectiveness of the anti-Obama strategy because of the contrast between the consistently unpopular Bush and the likely Democratic nominee.

"When Bush tries to articulate a vision," Davis said, pausing to choose his words carefully, "he will butcher the Gettysburg Address. Obama, he will make an A&P grocery list sing."
House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio), in a private meeting with Republicans on Tuesday, admitted the limitations of the anti-Obama strategy and tried to sell his troops on an Obama-like message of "change" as their only hope for success.

"We can't win SOLELY by tying our opponents to Barack Obama and his liberal views. We also have to prove Republicans are agents of change," Boehner told his colleagues, according to talking points prepared by his staff and provided to the Post.

With the party's presidential nominee having rubber stamped every significant agenda item on the Bush-Cheney agenda, spinning the GOP into agents of change isn't likely to get much traction, not even in northern Mississippi. And the Republican congressional leadership will have a difficult time transforming the GOP image as the party of obstruction and rubber stamp docility for a hated and failed president into one that stands for any kind of acceptable change-- unless they can convince people that more war, more deregulation, more greed and avarice, more corruption and more divisiveness is the kind of change they're looking for. Sounds like a tough row to hoe. GOP professional propagandists share, at least to some extent, the myopia of the party's leaders. "The political environment isn't as bad as it was in 2006 when Republicans lost both houses of Congress and a lot more," writes the cloistered and clueless Fred Barnes in the Weekly Standard. Still he has to admit that "more than 80 percent of Americans believe the nation is heading in the wrong direction. Democrats have steadily maintained the 10 percentage point lead in voter preference they gained two years ago. And President Bush's job performance rating is stuck in the low 30s, a level of unpopularity that weakens the Republican case for holding the White House in 2008." Maybe what they need to do is listen to a little Velvet Underground, something I suspect not many of them were doing back in the 60's and 70's.




UPDATE: IS ROY BLUNT TRYING TO SABOTAGE McCAIN? OR IS HE JUST STUPID?

Think Progress found a major discrepancy between two McCain surrogates, Mitt Romney and Roy Blunt. Both were in CNN's Late Edition this morning-- but with very different messages about what NcCain would be if-- God forbid-- he ever got to the White House. Romney claims McCain will be a big change from the failed and hated policies of the Bush Regime. Blunt, perhaps more honest than Willard would ever be, admits that McCain is just the same snake oil in another vial:

BLITZER: So it would be in effect a third Bush term when it came to pro-growth tax policies?

BLUNT: It would be. I think it would be. And I think that’s a good thing.

WILL VITO TRY TO STAY IN CONGRESS CLAIMING HE KNOWS MORE ABOUT FAMILIES BECAUSE HE HAS TWO?

Pressure is mounting on Fossella to resign or at least announce that he won't be seeking re-election, so that the GOP has at least a chance to hold on to the last New York City congressional district they hold. But, even as he announced that he is the father of Laura Fay's 3 year old daughter, he refused to answer any questions about his political future. The New York media is having a field day as his moralistic "Family Values" hypocrisy is exposed.

Embarrassing for the McCain campaign, of course, is the fact that Fossella is on the McCain New York Finance Committee (see below). McCain is expected to toss him off the Double Talk Express-- mouthing concern for the both families-- just as he did when Rep. Renzi was indicted. All the papers in NY, even the Times carried Fossella's terse admission:

I have had a relationship with Laura Fay, with whom I have a three-year-old daughter.

My personal failings and imperfections have caused enormous pain to the people I love and I am truly sorry.

While I understand that there will be many questions, including those about my political future, making any political decisions right now are furthest from my mind.

Over the coming weeks and months, I will to continue to do my job and I will work hard to heal the deep wounds I have caused.

The Times also points out that "Mr. Fossella, 43, was driving with a blood-alcohol level more than twice the legal limit when he was pulled over. He faces a mandatory five days in jail if convicted. The House ethics committee also could open an investigation into the matter.

...Mr. Fossella and his wife, the former Mary Patricia Rowan, have two sons and a daughter. On Wednesday, Mr. Fossella attended a confirmation ceremony for his oldest child, Dylan, at St. Clare’s Roman Catholic Church in the Great Kills neighborhood of Staten Island, before returning to Washington."

Even before Fossella finally admitted he has two families, the Daily News was tightening the noose around his political career, painting a picture of the congressman as a lothario neglecting his duties to pursue Fay (at the taxpayers' expense) and making it clear that GOP insiders want nothing to do with him.

Republican campaign officials warned donors he was a "huge problem" going into the fall elections.

Some even told donors to withhold checks to Fossella, inside sources said.

Party officials were losing confidence Fossella could hold onto his seat even if he survived fallout from his drunken-driving arrest in Alexandria, Va., last week, the sources said.

...Fay was using her married name, Shoaf, in late July 2003 when she took charge of arranging a trip to Europe for a delegation led by then-House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) to meet with war allies.

When the congressional delegation made stops in Britain, Denmark, the Netherlands and Spain, Shoaf and Fossella often disappeared together, three sources on the trip said.

"She wasn't around as much as I expected her to be," said one source on the trip. "He wasn't around much, either."

Fossella and Fay apparently missed a dinner in honor of Hastert thrown by the Welsh first minister on July 27, another source remembered.

Fay's absences in particular rankled Hastert's aides, the sources confirmed. Fay was the newly minted chief Air Force liaison officer in the House.

Click to enlarge

The Daily News is conducting a poll about Fossella's political future. You can vote and see the results here. As of 1:30PM Staten Island time:




UPDATE: BOEHNER WANTS FOSSELLA TO RESIGN

According to this morning's CQPolitics Fossella can expect no life-preserver from Minority Leader John Weepy Boehner. “I think Mr. Fossella is going to have some decisions to make over the weekend,’’ Boehner told reporters. “This is a decision between him, his family and his constituents.’’ Harsh-- and which family?

VITO FOSSELLA LOSING HIS SEAT IN CONGRESS FOR ALL THE WRONG REASONS

I always thought it would take a little 2010 redraw of the Brooklyn part of Vito Fossella's mostly Staten Island-based congressional district-- pushing the Brooklyn section further east towards heavily Democratic Coney Island and Brighton Beach-- to get rid of one of the last Bush rubber stamps in the New York congressional delegation. However, the aftermath of a seemingly innocuous drunk driving arrest seems to be spelling curtains for the reactionary legislator. Fossella is becoming a household name in his own district and causing some residents to laugh and others to feel ashamed and embarrassed. Neither is especially good for what once appeared to be a likely re-election-- especially if it causes some somnolent constituents to start looking into his ultra right-wing and out-of-touch voting record, a record that panders to the corporate interests that have financed his political career, while consistently sticking it to the workers and consumers who have voted for him-- and a record that has given Bush and Cheney blank checks on Iraq and on almost every domestic issue that has made voters feel that America is on the wrong track.

Fossella was arrested last Thursday in Virginia, with a blood alcohol level of 0.17 — over twice the legal limit in the state. If found guilty, he would have to serve five days in jail, an outcome analysts said could present major political problems.

“The prospect of jail time would make it very hard for him to run again,” said Cook Political Report House analyst David Wasserman. “The difference between serving jail time and pleading down to a lesser charge makes a huge difference in Fossella’s political future.”

But Fossella’s problems don’t end there. On Monday, the New York Daily News ran a front-page story about his relationship with a “mystery woman,” Laura Fay, a retired Air Force officer who posted his bail even though Fossella’s chief of staff lives nearby.

None of this sounds too deadly, right? Dig a little deeper and you find the probems. Fossella was abusive towards the police officers and lied to them, telling them he was going to take his sick daughter to the hospital. Unless "his sick daughter" is a love child by Laura Fay, he was doing no such thing. ["Fay has a 3-year-old daughter and is a single mom. The Post quotes a 'relative' of Fay's who says the woman was 'vague' about who fathered the child.] Meanwhile, Fossella and his pal were so drunk that they were kicked out of a bar after the friend passed out. Neither was capable of driving.

I was just pondering something in Arianna Huffington's new book, Right Is Wrong, a quote from paradoxical English writer G.K. Chesterton: "If there is one thing worse than the modern weakening of major morals, it is the modern strengthening of minor morals." Fossella is guilty of both but it is less likely he will be defeated for screaming about supporting  the troops while almost always voting against the well-being of active duty military personnel and veterans. Instead-- the way Al Capone went to jail for income tax evasion instead of murder-- Fossella may well be forced out of Congress for failing "a sobriety test by reciting the alphabet wrong, swaying while standing on one leg and stumbling while trying to walk a straight line." Oh, and because "Susan Del Percio, a crisis management consultant hired after the arrest, refused to answer 'yes' or 'no' when asked if Fossella fathered Fay's daughter."

Friends in DC have been telling me all morning that the die is cast and it's "bye-bye, Vito" time in Washington. And this afternoon's Washington Post seems to reflect all that chatter.

GOP political insiders say Fossella, whose blood-alcohol content was more than twice the legal limit when he was busted at 12:15 a.m. last Thursday, stands little chance of running for reelection at this point, and their Democratic counterparts agree. Buzz on the Hill and around town Wednesday was that Fossella would be announcing sooner rather than later that he won't seek another term in what has quickly become a hotly contested seat for embattled Republicans. Fossella was not voting in the House Wednesday.

According to May 1 police report, a copy of which was obtained by the Sleuth, Fossella told police he was on his way to pick up his sick daughter at her home in Alexandria and take her to the hospital. But the next day at a news conference, Fossella said he was driving to the suburbs in the wee hours of the morning to see friends.

Fossella was specific with the arresting officer about where he was headed. He gave a street name where he said he was picking up his daughter. That street, it turns out, is the same street where retired Lt. Col. Laura Fay lives with her three-year-old daughter. Fay, according to the New York Daily News, picked up Fossella from the police station.

...GOP aides speaking on the condition of anonymity said they expected Fossella would announce imminently that he won't seek reelection.

UPDATE: VITO'S ADMITS HE'S THE DADDY

So people have more than one family in places other than Utah and Texas! Here's Fossella's press release he sent out a few minutes ago:

“I have had a relationship with Laura Fay, with whom I have a three year old daughter.

"My personal failings and imperfections have caused enormous pain to the people I love and I am truly sorry.

"While I understand that there will be many questions, including those about my political future, making any political decisions right now are furthest from my mind.

“Over the coming weeks and months, I will to continue to do my job and I will work hard to heal the deep wounds I have caused.”

When we were hiking this morning, I told my friend Cynthia about Fossella's foibles. "Is he gay too?" she asked. And then inquired if he was attending two churches.

TODAY'S CONGRESSIONAL RACES IN LOUISIANA (UPDATE: CAZAYOUX BEATS KLANSMAN)

Don Cazayoux spells impending disaster for GOP

There were two congressional runoffs today in Louisiana, one to fill the seat that opened when Bobby Jindal became governor and one to fill the seat that became open when Richard Baker made it official and admitted he is a lobbyist. The first CD, the one formerly represented by Jindal, is expected to vote heavily Republican, which is a damned shame, since there is an actual progressive in the race, Gilda Reed. The people there still favor the war in Iraq and Confederate ideals. The 6th CD, centered around Baton Rouge, looks like a toss-up. Don Cazayoux is a conservative Democrat and Woody Jenkins is a neo-fascist Republican. The Secretary of State's website keeps releasing unofficial returns as they come in. So far only 9 parishes have reported (out of 505) in the first CD and only 6 parishes out of 512 in the Baton Rouge race, so the figures are meaningless. I'll be updating throughout the night.

Meanwhile, you can vote too-- but not on these races. Should Vito Fossella, Staten Island's drunken congressman, go to jail for breaking the law? Vote here.

With 64 precincts reporting Jenkins leads 8,978 (55%) to 6,688 (41%); too early to be sure if this means anything.


UPDATE ONE: KKK CANDIDATE PULLS AHEAD IN BATON ROUGE

With 20% of the parishes reporting it's Jenkins with 13,237 (52.7%) and Cazayoux with 10,936 (43.6%).


UPDATE TWO: THERE'S GONNA BE SOME HAPPY KLAN DRAGONS TONIGHT

With about half the precincts counted, Jenkins has 27,457 votes (51.6%) and Cazayoux has 23,308 (43.8%) but... the biggest Democratic precincts of East Baton Rouge haven't reported yet.


UPDATE TROIS: AFRICAN-AMERICAN PRECINCTS OF EAST BATON ROUGE ARE REPORTNG NOW

The race is tightening as Jackson's primary supporters come in big for Cazayoux. With 121 of East Baton Rouge's 314 precincts now in, it's Jenkins with 29,841 (48.9%) and Cazayoux with 28,350 (46.4%)


UPDATE FOUR: IT'S ALL UP TO EAST BATON ROUGE NOW

Virtually all votes are counted in the KKK-heavy areas and all that's left to count are the Democratic strongholds of East Baton Rouge. Any Klansmen who were breaking out the rum and coke or Pabst Blue Ribbon, hold off. Only 156 of East Baton Rouge's 314 precincts are in and Jenkins can still lose this. Right now it's Jenkins with 34,428 (49.1%) and Cazayoux with 32,400 (46.2%).

UPDATE FIVE: CAZAYOUX PULLS AHEAD

The East Baton Rouge precincts are flooding in now and Cazayoux has pulled ahead of Klansman Woody Jenkins.-- 49,312 (49.2%) to 46,282 (46.2%) It is OVER!


UPDATE: FINAL VOTE

Don Cazayoux- 49,702 (49.20%)

Woody Jenkins- 46,741 (46.27%)

The GOP and GOP front groups spent over $4 millions to hold on to this red, red seat. They failed. Do you think it will stop them from blocking veterans' right bills and children's health care? I doubt it. Speaker Pelosi and DCCC Chairman Chris Van Hollen had every right to gloat tonight. CVH: "For the second time this cycle, Republicans were reminded that 'all politics is local.' House Republicans tried to nationalize this election, illegally coordinated with Freedom's Watch, used false and deceptive special interest smears, and funneled nearly a million dollars into a district that Republicans held for more than three decades. Don won by focusing on the concerns of LA-06 voters -- good paying jobs, affordable health care, and better education."

Nancy P: "Louisianans embraced Don's positive message of strengthening America's middle class by investing in education, creating jobs, making health care more affordable and bringing our brave men and women home from Iraq. His ability to work across party lines and build consensus will be a wonderful addition to the New Direction Congress. Don Cazayoux's victory this evening proves once again that Americans across our country want real solutions and reject Republicans' negative attacks."