Staten Island’s Rep. Vito Fossella finally ‘fessed up yesterday – issuing a brief statement that admitted he’d secretly fathered a daughter, now 3, during a long-term extramarital affair.
Fossella – sounding an awful lot like the disgraced Eliot Spitzer – apologized “to the people I love” for the “enormous pain” caused by his “personal failings and imperfections.”
Unlike Client 9, however, Fossella refused to resign.
And then he added that any decision on running for re-election is “furthest from my mind.”
Better start thinking about it, Vito.
The congressman was busted for drunk driving in suburban Virginia last week – telling cops he was on his way to visit his “sick daughter.”
So when retired Air Force officer Laura Fay showed up to bail him out, tongues were set to wagging.
Yesterday, he came clean.
The result?
“I think Mr. Fossella is going to have some decisions to make over the weekend,” said House Minority Leader John Boehner, adding that the congressman needs to consider a resignation.
As for another term – well, let’s just say that GOP kingmakers already are in talks with alternative candidates, like Staten Island DA Daniel Donovan.
That Fossella betrayed his wife and family is between him and them. But his betrayal of his constituents was only marginally less egregious.
Vito Fossella needs to just go away.
Now.