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It’s Election Day and voters in Staten Island, New York are about to decide whether they want a disgraced ex-U.S. representative who was busted in 2008 for leading a double life to be their Borough President.
56-year-old ex-GOP congressman Vito Fossella is hoping people will forget about the scandal that derailed his political career 12 years ago and elect him to the largely ceremonial public office of Borough President, which the Republican party has held for the last four decades.
Fossella represented the state’s 13th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives for six terms, from 1997 to 2009, and served as the lone Republican from New York City. During his tenure, he held a 0% rating with the HRC and was a vocal opponent of all things LGBTQ.
In 1999, he voted to make it illegal for same-sex couples to adopt children. In 2004, he voted for the Marriage Protection Act, and in 2004 and 2006 he voted for the Federal Marriage Amendment, both of which aimed to define marriage as between “one man and one woman.”
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Ironically, his political career was derailed in 2008 when he was arrested for drunk driving in Virginia and it was revealed that he had a second secret family living there.
AP reports:
Fossella had a wife and three children living on Staten Island at the time of his 2008 arrest in Virginia. Fossella told officers he was going to see his sick daughter. The woman he had a secret relationship with, a former Air Force lieutenant colonel who worked for a time as a liaison to Congress, bailed him out of jail.
At the time, he was the only GOP member in Congress from New York City and was a social conservative who represented a largely Catholic district. When the revelations about his second family emerged, Fossella finished his term but opted not to seek another term.
But after nabbing endorsements from the borough’s only daily newspaper, as well as guys like Rudy Giuliani and Donald Trump, Fossella is hoping to revamp his political career.
Last week, Trump issued a statement calling him “the only true conservative Republican in the race who will stand up to the radical liberal mob” and praising him for being “strong” and “tough”.
Gotta love those good, old-fashioned, Republican family values!
Graham Gremore is the Features Editor and a Staff Writer at Queerty. Follow him on Twitter @grahamgremore.
humble charlie
Foolfella now defines marriage as between a man and two women. Yes, I know, it’s just too easy.
Openminded
Funny one, but the real truth is he was only married to one woman. It’s disgraceful that he did have a mistress with children in another state, but the article is somewhat misleading in the way it leaves the impression that he was married to 2- different women at the same time.
dinard38
Yes. WAY too easy!!!! Lol!!!! 🙂
carllonghorn
I have no doubt every Repub out there will vote for this piece of trash – they have completely lost their moral compass. And if tRump says so, well, that’s good enough for this mob. They hold their Bible and preach about family values, but the hypocrisy is blinding, and the national press does not hold these people accountable for their actions.
Peter
There’s nothing more Rs love than a good hypocrite, so he’ll undoubtedly be elected.
Tombear
Hey, hey, hey it’s in the Bible. A man can have as many wives he can support! Praise Gay Jesus! My Jesus is GAY, if you have a problem with my GAY Jesus go FU!
Openminded
Research shows he only had 1- wife. Mistress with kids on the side in another state, but only 1- wife. Still a POS of a man in my book, but the man, this article is misleading also.
Tombear
And I meant that with a high degree of Christian LOVE! Hehe
twomen4u
Has any one asked the question, where are the two wives? How about the children when they learned they had a half sibling? Enquiring minds want to know.
Inspector 57
Vaxxx him!!!
cuteguy
Of course Trump is going to support hypocrisy and infidelity. That’s what made him the king of the GQP
Mehki
Why is everyone saying the lead was misleading? You don’t have to be married to have a family.
I did not think he was married to two women at the same time. Understood exactly one he had – a second family consisting of children and a woman who gave birth to them.
And there is something called commonlaw that is legally recognized.
The whole parsing and sematics sounds like making excuses for this POS.
Gadfeal
Having lived in France where the private lives of public officials are not considered as relevant to their professions, I have a general perspective that the “requirement” of a normative family life for public office in the US is obsolete. There is nothing in the Constitution that indicates that private life is of import to public service.
The French Revolution was not only motivated by ending hereditary rule, but also to ending the corrupting influence of organized religion on politics, and on the economy of France. The French Catholic Church held vast properties that were nationalized. It explains why no French politician invokes religious references, and French schools strictly forbid any visible signs of religious affiliation (no crucifixes, no yamukas, no chadors…); teachers stage protests, joined by students, if anything is done that negatively impacts the principle of equality – all students are given equal attention and opportunity.
The whole issue of “sexual scandal” is alien in France. A “sex scandal” is seen as specifically Anglo-Saxon. This is a country with no expectation of marital fidelity, with Presidents with parallel families, unmarried but “living in sin” openly, and of public outrage when Paris Match published photos of late President Mitterand’s “out of wedlock” daughter – AT Paris Match for intrusion into one private life!
The American Revolution lacked the anti-organized religion aspect of the French Revolution, and, somehow, the Puritanism streak has persisted with an unrealistic expectation of “Godly” private lives in politicians. Of course, the only way to toe that line is by hypocrisy.
GayVeteranOfcr
Virginia has such interesting laws.
Air Force particularly takes note of (used to take note of) Virginia’s law that prohibited unrelated men and women living together in the same house.
That must have (presumption) gone by the wayside now that same sex marriage is legal in Virginia.
Even so, if the NY legislator fathered children in Virginia, he must adopt them or let them belong solely to his mistress (since that is what she is). Adopting will be interesting, as he has a wife in another state.
Virginia also imputes the condition of prostitution in such cases, which is illegal in Virginia. Taxes paid in both states, as well as declaring home ownership and “homesteading” to reduce taxes will be interesting. Then there’s the issue of where does he garage his car in Virginia and for how long and does he pay out-of-state excise taxes for his personal auto and so on, and then there is state and federal income taxes. Does he spend a time in Virginia long enough for Virginia to tax his income as taxable state income tax? NY state income tax – does he claim reduced state income due to the amount of time he spends in Virginia?
Maintaining two families is a mess. Wait until inheritance issues arise, and they will.