Okay, so it’s the law.  The House Ethics Committee is required to investigate any House member who is arrested…. and that includes Vito Fossella.  The Committee will not begin the investigation until after Fossella’s case is in court on June 26th.  In all probability Fossella will be sentenced to five days in jail.

A special, four-member investigative subcommittee chaired by Rep. Michael Doyle (D-Pa.) will handle the probe. GOP Rep. J. Gresham Barrett (R-S.C.) will serve as ranking member. Reps. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) and Rob Bishop (R-Utah) will make up the remainder of the investigative panel.

And, of course, the investigation is not without criticism.

That decision brought criticism from Citizens for Responsibilty and Ethics in Washington, a liberal watchdog group, which had urged the panel to investigate Fossella.

“The Ethics Committee deferred an investigation of Vito Fossella? We are shocked, shocked, shocked. The only thing more shocking would be if the committee decided to investigate anything…ever,” said Melanie Sloan, CREW’s executive director.

The investigation is the law.  The delay is not.  But, in truth we have all heard or read Vito Fossella’s confession that took place the night he was arrested.  That said, what’s left to confess?  What’s left to investigate?  Fossella has said that he won’t seek re-election so just put him in a box and sit him on the shelf until his term is up.

Representative Vito Fossella (R-NY) who is currently the only Republican Representative from New York has announced that he won’t seek re-election.  That could possibly open yet another seat for the Democrats in November. 

New York Rep. Vito Fossella said Tuesday he will not seek re-election as a result of “personal mistakes,” a decision that comes after a drunken driving arrest and disclosure that he fathered a child in an extramarital affair.

“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,” Fossella said in a statement on his House of Representatives website.

This comes as no surprise.  Being the sole Republican Congressman in a blue state was no easy job to maintain.  Fossella was first elected to the House in 1997.  His service in the Congress was of little consequence until 9-11.  After the terrorist attack on New York, Fossella had the opportunity to do some good for his state.  Perhaps, that was his best opportunity to shine in the House.

His work in Congress shifted dramatically following the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

Hundreds of Staten Island residents died in the attacks, and Fossella became a prominent advocate for families of those killed.

As more recovery and rescue workers got sick after toiling at the ground zero site, Fossella pushed for Washington to pay for their health care — an effort that has met with short-term success, but no long-term program.

Unfortunately, Rep. Fossella leaves little to show for his time in Washington.  Now, he has decided to return home to Staten Island and work to repair a marriage that must be on the rocks. 

Fossella is faced with trying to put a broken marriage and family back together while obviously having to deal with Laura Fay, the woman who bailed him out of jail on drunk driving charges and the mother of his out of wedlock child. 

Let’s hope for the Fossella family and for the product of his extramarital affair, Vito Fossella shows ability to make amends than he did to help make laws.

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.”