Drunk driving and illegitmate child defines “family values” for Representative Vito Fossella of New York. Rep. Fossella has three children with his wife and according to his confession another three year old daughter with Laura Fay who lives in Virginia.
Of course, Fossella is not the first and certainly won’t be the last to have fathered a child out of wedlock while “wedlocked” to a wife and children. Perhaps it is the hard line approach to “family values” that Republicans have taken that makes this latest revelation all the more scandalous. Again and again we have seen the pious and judgmental among us fall from grace. Maybe this latest episode would not have been front page news, except for the fact that Fossella is among those who by party association claim to be more righteous than the rest of us. Sometimes it just pays to be a progressive Democrat and accept the fact that we aren’t perfect, aren’t going to be perfect, and more often than not own our mistakes in judgment.
According to a USA Today Report
Rep. Vito Fossella of New York acknowledged on Thursday that he fathered a child from an extramarital affair, answering questions that arose from his arrest on drunken driving charges last week.
“My personal failings and imperfections have caused enormous pain to the people I love and I am truly sorry,” said Fossella, a Republican, who has three children with his wife in Staten Island, N.Y.
Fossella’s private life came under scrutiny after he was arrested last week in the Virginia suburbs of Washington. Police said his blood-alcohol level was twice the legal limit, and he could face a mandatory five days in jail if convicted.
When Fossella was pulled over, police said he told officers that he was going to see his daughter in the area. That prompted questions about who the daughter was.
“I have had a relationship with Laura Fay, with whom I have a 3-year-old daughter,” Fossella said in his statement. It was Fay who got him out of jail after the arrest.
One is left to wonder which woman, wife or lover, will stand by her man as he makes his world wide apologies. Fossella had this to say:
“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 continue to do my job and I will work hard to heal the deep wounds I have caused,” he said.
Well, whatever happens to Rep. Fossella, his wife and his mistress, it probably won’t be pretty. But, what about the children… all four of them? How many times have we seen and heard “for the sake of the children?” The phrase has become nothing more than that… a phrase that seems to mean nothing to some.
Fossella, whatever his plans and aspirations, probably won’t be re-elected. In 2006, he faced a tough and close race. With the latest news I would be willing to guess that re-election, should he be so vain as to put his name on the ballot, is about as likely to happen as a snowflake surviving in hell.
Fossella will survive in some way. His wife and his mistress will survive. But, it is time for the “family values” people to realize that their adult indiscretions affect their children more in the long term than the immediate disgrace of the short term. Caring about the children more than feeding one’s ego and primal urges… that is a “family value.”
