If this is true, Vito is screwed:
When cops stopped Rep. Vito Fossella for drunken driving, the married congressman said he was rushing to see his sick daughter on nearby Grimm St. – the home of the mystery woman who later plucked him from jail.
Fossella’s spokeswoman has insisted the single mom, Air Force Col. Laura Fay, 45, was only a “good friend,” but the Staten Island Republican implied to suburban D.C. cops that Fay’s 3-year-old was his.
“The subject stated that he was driving down from Washington, D.C., to Grimm St. because his daughter was sick and needed to go to the hospital,” a police report obtained by the Daily News reveals.
He could readily survive the drunk driving bust by itself, but having a DC-based honey on the side with a kid he sired?
That’s a career-killer; he might as well start sending his résumé to lobbying shops, because his Staten Island strongholds will NOT countenance a transgression like that. The honey alone would be a rough road to ride out, but an illegitimate kid? Holy Hanna Montana, that’s a stabbin’, then shooting, then castrating offense ’round these parts.
He has to know this, and more importantly, the Island Republicans have to know this. If this is true they have a huge decision to make:
Fossella said last week that he would not resign from office, but has not stated that he will remain a candidate for re-election this fall.
The borough Republican executive committee is set to interview candidates for the local fall races on May 15, with a full county convention to come in the weeks following, so there still would be time to nominate another candidate if Fossella does not run.
(You gotta love the way the Fingerboard Road fuckwits at The Retreat reported about this development, tucking it under a headline about fundraising, and not bringing it up until ten paragraphs into the story… what a bunch of chickenshit punks!)
I’d imagine there is some mad scrambling going on right now among the SI Republican mucky mucks. First, they need to find out if Vito fathered the kid, and they have to find out now. Next, they have to make sure Vito does not resign, and pick someone to run for his seat from their stable of current office holders with ‘name brand’ status… which ain’t gonna be easy. The logical choice would be Jimmy Oddo, but it’s taken as conventional wisdom that he has his eyes set on running for–and most likely winning–the Borough President position next year, when he gets term limited out of his City Council seat. I can’t see Oddo giving up on that to be a member of the minority in the House of Representatives, where he’d be treated like dirt and spend most of his time banging his head against the wall since he’d be a rookie AND the only GOP member of the NYC House contingent.
The next likely guy is Andy Lanza, but that too could cause problems. The New York GOP is hanging onto their majority in the state senate by the slimmest of margins, and will scream bloody murder if a seat where they have an unbreakable lock in place bails out on them.
The next few days are gonna be interesting.
Was the bar owner some sort of cover-up?
“The next few days are gonna be interesting.”
Why?
Who’s the Democratic opposition? Between this, Staten Island Republicans may be finding the “R” designation has lost its luster.
It’s always been my impression that folks had a love-hate relationship with him (I once had a softball game for charity in Bay Ridge where he was involved, and I remember being pleasantly surprised that he was as popular as crotch rot…)
The party would undoubtedly shitcan him in a second if that’s their inclination, but who’s to say they won’t battle to save his ass? All they’d need is some parish priest’s accolades that he didn’t have the baby aborted in the first place. If his marriage was bad anyway, they could see it as a win-win for everyone concerned.
Don’t make the mistake that there are any high moral standards or principles at stake. It’s about impressions and perceptions to them.
From what I can gather from the Daily News coverage (who are making the local fishwrap look like clueless amateurs covering this story) Vito and a friend named “Brian” (who I’m guessing was jody) went to some bar at 10PM and Jody was already well oiled, to the point he a)fell asleep at the bar; b)fell asleep on a chair outside the bathroom; c)stumbled over a table, damaging it. They were asked to leave and someone from the bar hailed them a cab because he didn’t want them driving.
I’m guessing Jody was poured into the cab and Vito headed for his honey’s house.
If the kid is his, he’s a goner. This ain’t a Kennedy in Boston we are talking about, this is an Irish/Italian guy married to an Irish girl who held himself up as a “traditional values” dude. A bimbo with a baby blows that image straight to Hypocrite Hell.
PS: The Dem primary is going to feature two Brooklyn guys: Harrisson, again, and some guy Recchia (sp?), who last I heard doesn’t even live in the district, but is raising a lot of money.
“A bimbo with a baby blows that image straight to Hypocrite Hell.”
For some reason (that probably speaks more to my hit-or-miss personal moral standards than Vito’s), it still surprises me that this particular vice would be Vito’s undoing…
The fact that the chick would be screwed (no pun intended), military career-wise, only adds to my skepticism.
Maybe I’m, once again, bending over backwards to be fair to this clown because “there, but for the grace of God, go I”?
Yeah, if it’s true, it’s bad, but I guess I just don’t want to see the guy eat his own gun over it…
“…and some guy Recchia ..”
In that case, there’s always whatever candidate the LaRouchies put up…
It’s about honor; being straight up. You admit you’re dicey on stuff; that Vito alleged to be rock solid of his existence… but a bastard child? No, sorry, you don’t walk away from that.
Apparently, he was leading a “double” life.
That backs up your theory about the local Rethugs covering up for him, because, IMHO, all of these spectators are speaking up NOW about having witnessed this for years….spectators who’d have jumped at the chance to sell this story to the papers, if they hadn’t been cowed into silence.
Damn. I think I see a pizza apron in Vito’s future…