is he playing chicken with larry craig?

sure hope so.

It is difficult to get the news from poems, but men die miserably every day for lack of what is found there. --William Carlos Williams

---

by: RichardPlatypus @ Sun May 11, 2008 at 05:20:42 AM CDT

July 1st.

That is the date after which David Paterson could not call a special election, should Fossella resign.

It occurs to me that Vito's defiance could be a strategy - perhaps whispered into his ear by anyone from SI dinosaur Guy Molinari to John Boehner - to avoid a special election.

It stands to reason that Democrats would benefit from a special election. The party would get to choose a candidate from Staten Island, who would not have to do primary battle where progressives would remain behind Steve Harrison and Domenic Recchia would wage war with however many hundreds of thousands he already has on hand (excess of 300k at last filing if i remember right).

The Republicans would likely get immediately behind Dan Donovan, who already has borough-wide name recognition.

It is difficult to get the news from poems, but men die miserably every day for lack of what is found there. --William Carlos Williams

---

by: RichardPlatypus @ Sun May 11, 2008 at 19:08:13 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

GOP unfair to Fossella

GOP is applying a different rule to Rep. Fossella.  Rep. Dan Burton of Indiana has acknowledged fathering a child out of wedlock and he was a Committee Chairman when GOP had majority and is the Ranking Member now.  A former GOP House leader, then Republican Conference Chair J.C. Watts of Oklahoma, acknowledged fathering two children out of wedlock and remained a House GOP Leader. Louisiana GOP U.S. Senator Diaper Dave Vitter was embraced with open arms by Sen. DeMint and the far right of GOP Senators after revelations of his years of prostitutes (only women hookers acknowledged so far) in DC and New Orleans. Fossella should hang in there.  Why is Diaper Dave Vitter still considred a "family values Republican" but Fossella would get the boot - a GOP double standard.

---

by: pasuburbdem1 @ Sun May 11, 2008 at 06:32:58 AM CDT

Now, I did say that Fossella did some things right,

...but that doesn't mean he gets a free pass.

He's still a politician spouting moral values who went and drove drunk.

Oh, and he also fathered a child out of wedlock while making a big deal about family values.

Now, on the other hand, if we could get Larry Craig to re-enter himself into the running...

Bill Posey is not half-alligator...and is outclassed by Davy Crockett anyway: http://www.washingtonmonthly.c...

---

by: Glenn Magus Harvey @ Sun May 11, 2008 at 06:44:45 AM CDT

Fosella was

never really a moral, religious right right republican, I never read of him spouting relgious values and he even voted for stem cell research and had amassed one of the more liberal voting records for a Republican, always doing really well on the environment. He's one of those Republicans you can dislike his opinions, but not hate them, and you can't really find it in you dislike him because he was always so quiet and un-prone to making offensive statements. At least in the past few years that I have been seriously covering politics.  

Call no man happy until he is dead-Aeschylus

---

by: ArkDem the Ragin Cajin @ Sun May 11, 2008 at 16:22:08 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Hmm, my bad then...

...I should have done my research better.  I'll get around to assessing this race at some point.

Bill Posey is not half-alligator...and is outclassed by Davy Crockett anyway: http://www.washingtonmonthly.c...

---

by: Glenn Magus Harvey @ Sun May 11, 2008 at 17:51:18 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

well, he's a little bit of a jerk

towards his sister, who's gay, and that's kind of hypocritical. His ACU score has really sunk the last few years, that's probably way I thought of him liberally. Right now his lifetime is like 80, which is better than many of these southern guys. Once you get used to these obnoxious, absolutely idiotic, ignorant southern representatives who are bigoted and fundamentalist, and have life ACU scores of like 140 out of 100, and who say offensive things all the time, pretty much every other Republican seems almost tame, by comparison. Still, Fosella's a big Iraq War proponet too, so it's still goodriddance if he's gone, he's not Jim Leach, he was one of the few Republicans I really liked.  

Call no man happy until he is dead-Aeschylus

---

by: ArkDem the Ragin Cajin @ Mon May 12, 2008 at 14:28:09 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

his gay sister.

vito fossella refuses to attend family events if his sister will be present with her partner.

moral political posturing is one thing... excommunicating family members over it is another level of low.

http://www.nydailynews.com/new...

It is difficult to get the news from poems, but men die miserably every day for lack of what is found there. --William Carlos Williams

---

by: RichardPlatypus @ Mon May 12, 2008 at 14:54:02 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Wow, even Cheney seems much more accepting that that

---

by: ChadInFL @ Mon May 12, 2008 at 15:22:00 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

It's Easy To See Why....

Fossella would rather go down fighting than to succumb to the will of the netroots and radical left wing bloggers, who are obviously no friends of his.  

---

by: Gatenmaru @ Sun May 11, 2008 at 07:49:20 AM CDT

I assume that this is snark

Given that most of the GOP leadership wants to push him off the Brooklyn Bridge at this point... or I guess, the Verrazano.

---

by: DavidNYC @ Sun May 11, 2008 at 15:35:17 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Not surprised.

Did you see the SUSA poll from the 8th?

74% of Reps, 61% of Dems, and 57% of indies in his district approve of him.

66% of Reps, 55% of Dems, and 52% of indies think he should stay in office.

53% of the district (Majority of Repubs, and large minority of Dems and Indies) think he should run again.

He hasn't lost the support of his district.

---

by: wmlawman @ Sun May 11, 2008 at 12:12:50 PM CDT

We decided the timeline didn't fit for an accurate

depiction.  It was done on the 8th, the same day he got hit for the extramarital relationship in the news, etc.  There was no way that accurately measured the blow to his popularity.  

---

by: JeremiahTheMessiah @ Sun May 11, 2008 at 12:39:40 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Exactly.

This poll should be influenced by his DWI, and a strong campaign by the Democrats should be enough to give him the boot in November.  

---

by: C.S.Strowbridge @ Mon May 12, 2008 at 10:06:22 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

I don't really buy it.

That poll was conducted on the day that Fossella admitted that he was the father -- I don't think the news had completely sunk in just yet.

---

by: James L. @ Sun May 11, 2008 at 12:41:47 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

You don't know Staten Island

When the news first broke and I talked about it with my family in Queens, the first thing I my grandmother said; "He's in Staten Island, so they'll reelect him" Staten Island has a reputation here for being the "sleazy borough." It's relatively erroneous, but I've met many a person from Staten Island, who are, in fact, sleazy people. I have friends from college from Staten Island who couldn't wait to leave. Here in Queens, the very thought of living in Staten Island causes people's faces to cringe. My dad refuses to drive through it to go to New Jersey and will go out of his way through Manhattan because he "feels dirty" driving through it.

I'm Italian-American from New York, I know how my community is. Because this guy's name is Vito Fossella, because he's a Republican and because he's from Staten Island, there is nothing short of raping little boys that can turn this district against him. His reelection got harder, but there's a really good chance that, despite this, they'll send him back to Washington this year.

How do you think a sleazeball like Rudy Giuliani won twice here?  

Liberty Avenue Politics - a place for politics in Southern Queens

---

by: nrafter530 @ Sun May 11, 2008 at 20:40:33 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Give him the boot!

pasuburbdem1,

I really think the underlying issue here is not his affair, but rather his DUI. If this was just an affair, there wouldnt be the push against him to retire or resign like there is now.

Im fed up with corrupt members of my party. The NRCC needs to law down the law, and if Fossella does not retire, there should be an active effort to denie him re-nomination.

I too would want to wait and see a poll from next week, rather than as soon as this scandal is happening. See what voters think when they have time to hear all of it and consider it for a bit.

A cat can have kittens in an oven but that doesn't make them biscuits.

---

by: Kyle98632 @ Sun May 11, 2008 at 14:04:42 PM CDT

amen

One of the reasons I went from being a liberal republican, to a conservative democrat. lol Join the dark side Kyle... come on, its great over here... We have cookies. lol Don't ask what in them though, damn hippies. haha Seriously though, I was a Republican for a long time, but George W. Bush sure changed that. I found myself not liking many of the things that he did, but found myself apologizing for him. You should have seen me trying to defend the Iraq war in Long Beach, California... Not the most popular postition. But then, no weapons were ever found, and I just, I don't know, woke up. It killed me the first time I voted for Diane Fienstein, but I knew she was a better choice than the idiot republican they got to run. Life goes on though, and things change. Like control of the House and Senate in 06. Are they generally more liberal than I am, sure, but did we seriously need some checks and balances back in our Federal government, oh, absolutely.

---

by: Venslor @ Sun May 11, 2008 at 15:46:37 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

out of curiosity...

"I went from being a liberal republican, to a conservative democrat"

Does that mean you became more liberal, or more conservative, or stayed the same?

Bill Posey is not half-alligator...and is outclassed by Davy Crockett anyway: http://www.washingtonmonthly.c...

---

by: Glenn Magus Harvey @ Sun May 11, 2008 at 16:02:11 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Good question

Not really one I have a great answer to. I haven't changed all that much... although, current republicans scare me... So I find myself siding with democrats more and more, if only because republican postions are so radical IMO. I tend to think though that I most stayed where I am. Where as, I was once slightly to the right of the middle... Current Republican leadership got so extreme that they literally moved the middle further to the right. I woke up one day, and found myself a democrat. lol Kinda surprised me. But it is true, the label changes a person. Like Liberman. without the democratic label, he is free to be even more conservative than he might have been had he still been a democrat. Like many party switching Dems to Repubs in the South, they're the same person, but their voting record is far more conservative than it was when they has the little "D" after their name.

---

by: Venslor @ Sun May 11, 2008 at 18:43:11 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Same with me

In just a few short years I went from being a moderate Republican (mostly conservative on foreign policy and economic matters; socially I was centrist) to a moderately liberal Democrat, shifting towards being center-left economically, much further left on foreign policy, and realizing when I became more aware of social issues, I found myself agreeing with the Democrats much more than the Republicans. I have long been environmentally conscious, since my grade school years, and now I find myself agreeing much more with the donks there too.

Check out the 2010 California races (http://2010californiaracetracker.wetpaint.com) and help us take back Red California! (http://www.takebackredcalifornia.org)

---

by: californianintexas @ Sun May 11, 2008 at 18:21:17 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

lol, thanks but....

Well thanks for the offer, but I see myself being a Republican for some time now. George Bush actually is the person who lead me to be a Republican actually. When I was 12 and following the 2000 election I started researching things (my parents both were strong Nader supporters) and found I lined up mostly with Bush. Being a member of the "religious right", I probably wont line up with the Dems that much.

PS I will probably end up voting this fall for my Democratic Congressman, if that helps lol.  

A cat can have kittens in an oven but that doesn't make them biscuits.

---

by: Kyle98632 @ Sun May 11, 2008 at 22:18:56 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

haha

Its a start. If it makes you feel better, I hate my Democratic Congresswoman! lol

---

by: Venslor @ Sun May 11, 2008 at 22:36:02 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

What district

are you in?

Bill Posey is not half-alligator...and is outclassed by Davy Crockett anyway: http://www.washingtonmonthly.c...

---

by: Glenn Magus Harvey @ Mon May 12, 2008 at 00:48:15 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

bah

I'm in CA-38, represented by the near worthless Grace Napalitano. I've tried to find anything of substance she's actually done. She seems like a sheep... Just follows the crowd... But of course, the Republicans that generally get nominated are insane. I keep hope that she'll retire. Get a decent Congressman in her place, but she just keeps chuggin along!

---

by: Venslor @ Mon May 12, 2008 at 02:12:23 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

For trivia's sake

is she at all related to Janet Napolitano?

I've always wondered that.  I don't know either of them, so it was just on the last-name basis.

Bill Posey is not half-alligator...and is outclassed by Davy Crockett anyway: http://www.washingtonmonthly.c...

---

by: Glenn Magus Harvey @ Mon May 12, 2008 at 14:13:08 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

I thought about it

But I don't think so, I've never cared enough about her to look it up. lol

---

by: Venslor @ Mon May 12, 2008 at 18:23:30 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

I've been wondering also

Grace is Mexican-American while Janet is Italian-American, so I don't think it's likely unless it's by a distant ancestor or through marriage or something.

Check out the 2010 California races (http://2010californiaracetracker.wetpaint.com) and help us take back Red California! (http://www.takebackredcalifornia.org)

---

by: californianintexas @ Tue May 13, 2008 at 03:40:15 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

...

Venslor,

Whos your Congresswoman? Im not a huge fan of my Congressman, but the likely GOP nominee is well....very underimpressive.

Glenn,

Im in WA-3, Brian Baird's district.

A cat can have kittens in an oven but that doesn't make them biscuits.

---

by: Kyle98632 @ Mon May 12, 2008 at 01:11:01 AM CDT

Savino, Lanza, Aubertine, etc.

Currently the New York State Senate is split as follows: 32 Republicans and 30 Democrats.  The New York Observer writes on February 26th following the special election of Darrell Aubertine. "This officially reduces Joe Bruno's Republican control in that house to just one seat."

Staten Island contains two districts (mostly).  Republican Lanza won his by a 34,160 to 23,497 margin, 10,663 votes; Democrat Duane Savino won hers unopposed.  Savino, however, outpolled "Blank, Void and Scattered" by just 23,497 to 15,132.  Since only 3900 BVS votes were cast in all of Staten Island for the Governor's race, it is assumed that she beat a non-existent Republican by only 8,365 votes.  That may be a stretch but ...  Nearly half of Savino's district, btw, is in Brooklyn (17,804 in Brooklyn; 20,825 in Staten Island).

The Senate Majority Leader becomes the Acting Lt.-Gov. with the resignation of Spitzer and the elevation of Paterson to Gov.  Yet another reason we want to flip this job.  We are one privately funded $2 million "investigation"/witch hunt away from a Republican Governor in NY installed by coup.

---

by: David Kowalski @ Mon May 12, 2008 at 03:17:29 AM CDT

I wouldn't worry...

Paterson came clean about a few things from his past which didn't reflect well on him.  Maybe he decided to do so in order to "air out his dirty laundry" now rather than have it uncovered later as Spitzer did.  

Either way it worked because his approval rating after coming clean was at nearly 60% according to SUSA.  Paterson seems like a fighter, and I doubt there's anything else in his personal life worse than what he has already admitted to.  I have no doubt he'll hang on till the next election in 2010.

---

by: ChadInFL @ Mon May 12, 2008 at 14:34:28 PM CDT

[ Parent ]