Vito Fossella Cries On House Floor After Drunk Driving, Adultery Revelations

Disgraced New York Congressman Vito Fossella broke down in tears on the floor of the House of Representatives today, apparently under the emotional weight of his recent behavior.

Fossella acknowledged on Thursday that he had fathered a daughter, now three years old, with a woman who wasn't his wife. News of his adultery came just a week after the Staten Island Republican was arrested for drunk driving in suburban Virginia.

Appearing on the House floor today, Fossella broke down when talking with House Chaplain, Reverend Daniel P. Coughlin, a Hill source who witnessed the event told The Huffington Post. The episode occurred shortly after the congressman voted against the Neighborhood Stabilization Act of 2008, a housing bill that passed through the House by a 239 to 188 vote.

Fossella's political and legal future is currently up in the air. He is expected to appear in court next week and could face jail time if convicted for his drunk driving charge.

According to the New York Times:

"A police report in Alexandria, Va., a suburb of Washington, said that Mr. Fossella ran a red light on Thursday just after midnight and had a "strong smell of alcoholic beverage" when he was pulled over. According to the report, Mr. Fossella told the officer that he was on his way to pick up his daughter, who needed to go to the hospital, although on Friday he said that he had been on his way to visit friends.

The report said Mr. Fossella failed several sobriety tests on the street, including a preliminary breath test on which he registered a blood alcohol level of 0.133 percent. After he was arrested, he recorded a level of 0.17 percent on another machine. The legal limit in Virginia, as in most states, is 0.08 percent."

Comments

[knowhelpnow]

11:31 AM on 05/09/2008

You forget that they are saved that means as long as they believe in Jesus they can do anything and cry(repent) when they are caught and all will be-forgiven that is the politics of the neo-cons. It seems strange but what the hell it's all in the family.
I'm so sick of the crying fools can they not stand up like a man or women and take their punishment for the DUI and I sure hope he is paying child support at least.

[JohnJames]

11:38 AM on 05/09/2008

Yes, it's just "weakness" when sanctimonious right-wing bible-thumpers do it. It's moral depravity that will soon destroy the family and nation when a liberal does the same thing.

[boyd]

07:53 PM on 05/09/2008

SO well said....

[sdskelton03]

11:09 AM on 05/09/2008

The Republican party needs to clean house. If you want to be the party of values, then you can't have these sort of things happening.

[strifeknot]

08:30 AM on 05/10/2008

If the Republicans were to get rid of members with any kind of significant moral failing, there wouldn't be any Republicans.

[gofaster]

10:21 AM on 05/09/2008

I sure hope he had his lapel pin on when he was bangin' his bimbo.

[boyd]

07:54 PM on 05/09/2008

Tee HEE! Great laffs in here today!

[Janus]

10:08 AM on 05/09/2008

So saith another Dupe on board:

"I see the liberal hypocrites are out in full force tonight. How quickly they forget Democrat Elliot Spitzer, screwing around with a hooker on the public dime. Slimy hypocrites!"

Let me see, now. Do these, your rightwinger heros, if not mentors, just for starters, meet your description as well?:

Newt Gingrich "exercising" with a young chick on his staff while at the same time decrying Clinton and Monica and is now being cheered by the rightwingers and invited to guest on TV programs? How about Dick Morris, formerly a GHW Bush and Clinton adviser, and currently a purveyor of moral judgments and political virtue on your Fox Newstwiser TV channel of choice who enjoyed toe-sucking with his prostitutes while serving the Clinton administration, according to newspaper accounts based on one of the women who squealed on him? How about Bob Livingston's activities that led him to resign just on the eve of his succeeding Gingich as Speaker? There are others, and you know it.

Finally, your assertion about liberal hypocrites in full force can apply equally as well to the Neofascist Republicans, whom you ardently support and mirror, often appearing in full force here on HuffPost and everywhere in the media.

[tonyrich]

11:57 AM on 05/09/2008

Get your facts straight he is a very, very wealthy man ( Spitzer).

[Smartey]

10:00 AM on 05/09/2008

Hmmmmmm.

Congrats, Congressman, for finding a woman to cheat with that you didn't have to pay. Or use mentor-intern intimidation.

[sunu20]

09:50 AM on 05/09/2008

They only cry when they get caught.

[Janus]

08:45 AM on 05/09/2008

Has there been any reaction from Redneck voters in the Bibleland precincts of the Southern Strategy to another fallen rightwinger hero in God's party of truth, family values and the American Way?

[Weeza]

08:33 AM on 05/09/2008

He is just the typical hypocritical Republican- they denounce gays while they "toe tap" in bathrooms, they are on committees to safeguard children against abuse while they openly solicit pages, they preach the right to life but don't condemn this administration for a war that has taken so many innocent lives. While they conndemned and sat in judgement of Bill Clinton they themselves were having affairs. The GOP evangelists spew hatred, evil and intolerance. They condemn gays & blame Katrina on the "gay pride parade" that brought the wrath of God on New Orleans while they openly solicit male prostititues. Be it a Congressman, evangelist, president, take your pick, they are a bunch of hypocritical evil doers and they make me sick

[Janus]

09:00 AM on 05/09/2008

Uh-oh, the pathetic, slack jawed Dupes on board will be coming after you, after their brainwashing session from Fox & Friends (read; the three stooges) on the Fox Newstwisters TV Cesspool is over this morning.

[Bibbo]

10:11 AM on 05/09/2008

No its not hypocracy but weakness.Hypocracy would be voting in favor of something you didn't believe in.Weakness is giving into something that feels good but you know is wrong. Don't be so judgemental of thier weakness as somehow proving hypocracy.Actually your eagerness to portray them as hypocrats reveals a strong undercurrent of self rightousness and judgementalness on your part.

[imfedup]

10:38 AM on 05/09/2008

It's hypocrisy, not hypocracy. If you're going to define it for all of us, at least spell it correctly. (This site even has spell check, for god's sake . . .) And it is indeed hypocritical to behave in a way you publicly condemn others for behaving.

[JohnJames]

11:31 AM on 05/09/2008

Bibbo, you're confused. Hypocricy is claiming to be morally superior than others while engaging in the behavior you condemn. That pretty well describes the family values party. There's also no self-righteousness or judgementalism on Weeza's part. He or she is just calling a spade a spade.

[JJK]

08:06 AM on 05/09/2008

Vito loved Family Values so much that he thought he'd have two!

[choirgirl]

07:56 AM on 05/09/2008

BOO HOO you lying sack of hypocrisy. voted to impeach ole Bill for -- lying. these people make me sick. the House should boot his sorry behind.

[richcpl]

07:07 AM on 05/09/2008

That's nice: he cried for himself as he voted against helping people stay in their homes.

[HypocrisyAlarm]

06:49 AM on 05/09/2008

A few points:

I do not think the public has a blanket right to view the private lives of people in the public eye.

I've seen lots of marriages/relationships that differed little from those of prostitutes and their clients, and I don't have a problem with people working in the sex industry or buying services and products from the sex industry.

I don't understand a nation getting in and staying in a weeks-long uproar over a two-second glimpse of a rather uninspiring breast on television. No more do I understand censoring television of words that most kids can hear in elementary school hallways on any given day.

My only issue is with hypocrisy. Fosella may not, in my opinion, moralize and try to force his stated moral code on everyone while not living up to those standards himself. Eliot Spitzer, whom I quite liked, may not remain at the (effective) top of law enforcement in New York while knowingly breaking the laws he swore to enforce.

In short, if one can't walk the talk, one had best remain silent.

[PackyJ]

08:51 AM on 05/09/2008

Precisely. Vito should have done the same, instead of voting to impeach Clinton.

[BrewerBill]

10:02 AM on 05/09/2008

The hypocrisy bothers me, not the affair. But the DWI bothers me a lot too--I live in Alexandria, in a neighborhood full of young families with little children. There's no excuse for that. He should have resigned immediately after the DWI bust.

[strifeknot]

05:31 AM on 05/09/2008

He's very, very, very sorry for getting caught.

[BeSpoke]

02:44 AM on 05/09/2008

zzzZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.......

What a surprise--a Republican posturing with his crocodile tears and religion for REDEMPTION.

[ejay579]

01:23 AM on 05/09/2008

Just think where Vito would be if he went against his "family values