Peter King Sticks Up For His Buddy Vito

There is nothing like a good sense of camaraderie among office co-workers. If I get caught drunk driving with a BAC twice the legal limit, father a love child and hide it for three years from my legal family 250 miles away and act like a complete hypocrite at my job, I want a friend like Peter King. After laying out some of the facts in diatribe, he decided to get some "perspective."

From Peter King's Op-Ed in the NY Post:

Let's get some perspective: Presidents such as John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson had extramarital affairs; Grover Cleveland and (it's now believed) Thomas Jefferson fathered children out of wedlock. Objective journalists would look at the entire person and not present a trivialized, prurient caricature.

The Vito Fossella that I know is a hardworking congressman who addresses issues seriously, while still holding onto his engaging, bantering sense of humor. And - in a field full of egotists and prima donnas - he's a congressman who's called Vito by his staff and anyone who walks up to him on the street.

I recall being with him on President Bill Clinton's 1998 trip to Northern Ireland at a key juncture in the Irish peace process. At one point, I went with Vito and his wife Mary Pat to a low-income Catholic neighborhood in West Belfast, where we met with a bunch of Irish kids who'd never before encountered a guy called Vito. He couldn't have been more gracious or cordial - talking, smiling and posing for pictures with kid after kid.

For perspective's sake, Vito Fossella is no Jefferson, Kennedy or LBJ. Name me one thing of value to our country that he's done in ten years. No, talking, smiling and posing for pictures does not count, even if it is West Belfast. While Jefferson did father children with his slaves, he is also credited with things like.....helping to write the Declaration of Independence and the U.S.-f**king-Constitution! Vito has been a sycophantic follower of George Bush for the last eight years. He's proud of his vote to defend marriage. He's proud to support the war in Iraq and to lower taxes for the rich by screwing the poor (including many Staten Islanders who have had their homes foreclosed on).

Spare me your "Vito is a good man" crap Mr. King. Congressman Fossella is as much a scumbag in his personal life as he has been working in Congress.

Stay Vito, Stay!

Its a wet and windy day outside and the same can be said for conditions surrounding Congressman Vito Fossella. The briefly national story is still whipping itself into a frenzy here in New York and Vito is reaching F5 status all on his own. Nothing is official yet, but the Congressman is now looking to stay in the race to be re-elected in Staten Island. That means that we have the right to make sure he stays newsworthy and to expose all of the family values that has run on and voted for. I don't even know what story to start on about him, so I'll just leave you with a few stories that Liz at the NY Daily News is linking to.

From The Daily Politics:

The romance between Fossella and Laura Fay, the mother of his illegitimate daughter, blossomed during a taxpayer-funded congressional trip to Malta in 2002.

If Fossella does decide to run for re-election, he shouldn't count on getting any help from the NRCC - or most other Republicans, for that matter.

Only Fossella knows what he will do next, and he's not talking, causing the speculation machine to run overtime.

Fossella's longtime ally and mentor, former Staten Island Borough President Guy Molinari, told The Post the congressman had every intention of running again this fall, but then backed away from that statement in an interview with the SI Advance.

An anonymous "high-ranking Republican source on Staten Island" insisted to NY1 that Fossella is indeed going to run again.

Staten Islanders have a lot to say on this topic.

A SurveyUSA poll conducted the same day the love child story broke found 61 percent of adults in Fossella's disitrict, the 13th CD, say he should stay in office; 53 percent believe he should seek re-election.

A Fossella fundraiser scheduled for Saturday at the home of Northfield Bank Chairman and CEO John Alexander was canceled.

The "family-values" congressman reportedly shunned his sister because she's gay.

Fossella's wife, Mary Pat, celebrated Mother's Day with her extended family, friends and her three children; her husband was nowhere to be seen.

Fay and her 3-year-old daughter, Natalie, have been keeping a low profile, too.

Both the congressman's wife and his mistress are considering dumping him.

And that is only a few of things going on around Mr. Fossella. Taxpayer-funded trysts (who does that remind you of?), shunning his sister for her sexual-orientation and being dumped by both his wife and mistress are my three favorites. What about you?

Seriously I can not wait for Steve Harrison to wallop Vito upside the head with this and his voting record as the Democrats take back this seat in Congress. So by all means Vito, please, please, pretty please stay in the race.

Republican Sexscapades

Cenk Uyugr brings Cliff Schecter on the show to talk about all the sex stories going on related to the GOP.

Careful, it's a long clip.

Rudy Gets His Gaming On In The Air

I have never spotted Rudy on the casino floor before on one of my trips to Vegas but that doesn't mean he doesn't know some of the most powerful gaming magnets in the country. Sheldon Adelson is one of the richest men in America thanks to gambling addicts everywhere and he lets Rudy share in some of the spoils.

From The Daily News:

Rudy Giuliani is jetting around the country wooing Bible-thumping conservatives, but his plane is often provided by a king of Sin City.

The Republican presidential hopeful anted up more than $122,000 last summer alone for jets traceable to casino kingpin Sheldon Adelson, whose Las Vegas Sands empire has made him the third-richest American, a Daily News review of campaign records shows.

Last quarter, The Sands' innocuously named Interface Operations LLC was the top provider of corporate jets to the frequently flying Giuliani, who was whisked around the country on the casino's plush Gulfstream G-IV in late August and early September, records show.

As the DN points out, some anti-gambling Republican activists are steamed at Rudy for using Adelson's jets. Now Rudy never claims to be the most virtuous of the Republican pack, but one has to wonder why he is dipping his hand in this cookie jar. The anti-gaming purity people are all over Iowa and while Rudy was going to write off both early states, he is investing a considerable amount in Iowa and New Hampshire. Maybe Rudy should have thought this through, but his ego will never admit to that.

Larry Craig's Protege Lives In Louisiana

Parish Councilman Joey DiFatta never made it to the big time like Larry Craig, in fact, he bowed out of a State Senate race in his home state of Louisiana. He was promising to defend conservative values from extreme liberal groups, whoever those are. Joey was going to clean up Louisiana but instead chose to leave politics, something completely foreign to the Senator from Idaho. Larry must be really be disappointed in his protege. Why use that word, protege? Ask the police.

From The Times Picaynue:

On Thursday, reports The Times-Picayune, Parish Councilman and GOP state Senate candidate Joey DiFatta, 53, denied that his dropping out of the Senate race had anything to do with documents outlining two encounters with police, who held him in suspicion of "lewd behavior" in public restrooms.

(snip)

"The detective asked DiFatta, 'What do you want?' according to the report, and he replied, 'I want to play with you.'"

Police reports, found here in .PDF format, outline a 1996 "peeping Tom" encounter and a 2000 "toe-tapping" escapade, made fashionable more recently by embattled Idaho Senator Larry Craig. The 2000 report includes a comment made by the officer involved that DiFatta seemed "well-versed."

Joey claims that the reason he dropped out was due to elevated enzymes in his heart but I have a suspicion it might be something else. Maybe Joey realizes what a hypocrite he is. I can hope, can't I?

Its Raining....Hookers

Rachel Maddow takes a look at hookers and politicians:

Senator Vitter Knows The D.C. Madam

He probably has more intimate relations with one of her former employees, but what counts is that he is on her infamous phone list. The Louisiana Republican fessed up yesterday to his connections with the Madam. He says that he used her services before he ran for the Senate in 2004 and already has been forgiven by God and his wife. Well thats great for you and Mrs. Vitter, but what about your hypocritical nature when it comes to claiming you are virtuous while Democrats are the party of sin?

From The Washington Post:

"This was a very serious sin in my past for which I am, of course, completely responsible," Vitter, 46, said in a statement, which his spokesman, Joel DiGrado, confirmed to the Associated Press.

"Several years ago, I asked for and received forgiveness from God and my wife in confession and marriage counseling," Vitter continued. "Out of respect for my family, I will keep my discussion of the matter there -- with God and them. But I certainly offer my deep and sincere apologies to all I have disappointed and let down in any way."

Neither Palfrey nor her attorney, Montgomery Blair Sibley, could be reached for comment last night. Sibley told the Associated Press that his client posted the phone records of her escort service on the Internet yesterday, four days after a federal judge lifted a restraining order preventing their publication. The records were included in a series of files on a Web site devoted to Palfrey's legal defense fund.

This isn't the first time he has been involved with escort/sex services before. When he ran for election in 2004 he was accused by a member of the state Republican party of having a long-term relationship with a prostitute down in the French Quarter.

Oh my! The list was just republished yesterday and already we have a Senator being skewered in the press. Pass the popcorn before the next act starts!

The Apple Doesn't Fall Far From The Tree Of Dr. Laura

Dr. Laura is hated on the left as a right-wing ideologue and the right loves her for her 'moral virtues' or whatever they claim in order to support her hateful radio show. Parents are generally assumed to bestow their good values on their children, yet Dr. Laura's kid got a healthy dose of what she is all about.

From The Salt Lake Tribune:

The soldier son of talk radio relationship counselor Laura Schlessinger is under investigation for a graphic personal Web page that one Army official has called "repulsive."

The MySpace page, publicly available until Friday when it disappeared from the Internet, included cartoon depictions of rape, murder, torture and child molestation; photographs of soldiers with guns in their mouths; a photograph of a bound and blindfolded detainee captioned "My Sweet Little Habib"; accounts of illicit drug use; and a blog entry headlined by a series of obscenities and racial epithets.

The site is credited to and includes many photographs of Deryk Schlessinger, the 21-year-old son of the talk radio personality known simply as Dr. Laura. Broadcast locally on 570 KNRS, "Family Values Talk Radio," the former family counselor spends three hours daily taking calls and offering advice on morals, ethics and values. She broadcast a show from Fort Douglas, in Salt Lake City, last week.

Are these the kind of family values that Dr. Laura admires? She would never admit to it, but one has to ask, how the hell did her kid get so twisted? Perhaps it was seeing the horrors of war or maybe it had to do with his homelife. The military recently banned myspace from its computers much to aggravation of the blogging world and all sites affected by the ban, but maybe it is a good thing to get this guy off the tubes, especially when you hear thoughts like these:

"Yes . . . F---ING Yes!!!" said one blog entry on the Schlessinger site. "I LOVE MY JOB, it takes everything reckless and deviant and heathenistic and just overall bad about me and hyper focuses these traits into my job of running around this horrid place doing nasty things to people that deserve it . . . and some that don't."

Looks like the military needs to put him in a mental ward, definitely not fit for the battlefield. It is kids like these that give us a bad name and rapport with the countries that we invade and occupy, not to mention the idiotic policies that put us there in the first place.