Source: Staten Island Advance, New York Daily News, New York Times

"Family values" Congressman Vito Fossella is embroiled in controversy that started with a DWI-arrest in Virginia last week. photo: Staten Island Advance

That's never a good news for any politician, but many have survived similar arrests.

What is threatening the political future of GOP Rep. Vito Fossella isn't the arrest itself, but his ride home from the Alexandria jail after he was released. His ride has caused media to question the family values of a "family values" politician who is the married, with a wife and three children who live on Staten Island, and -- it turns out -- who also has a three year old daughter living with his mother in Alexandria.

According to the New York Daily News, Fossella built a career as a staunch "family values" politician, polishing his image in his predominantly Catholic district with a string of anti-gay votes.

The New York Times paints a more flattering picture of him and reports "many of his Democratic colleagues did not regard Mr. Fossella as an ideological warrior." The paper calls him "a reliable member of his party. He voted to impeach President Clinton, followed President Bush’s war policies in Iraq, voted to eliminate financing for Planned Parenthood and supported a constitutional amendment against gay marriage."

The congressman's own family values came into question on Saturday, two days after Fossella's arrest, when his hometown paper, the Staten Island Advance, reported that a campaign consultant to the Congressman told them that the woman who picked up Fossella from the jail is an "old friend" of Fossella's who known the congressman for more than five years.

The paper reported that Fay "is a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel and single mother of a 3-year-old daughter."

Such close coverage by The Advance of Fossella isn't uncommon, according to a New York Times profile of his fallen political fortunes. The Manhatten paper judges that "The Advance chronicles his personal and political milestones with the avidity of a paparazzo."

But the story that developed out of that ride home from the jail is one fit for paparazzo, and for the active reporters of New York's tabloids.

New York Daily News reported Wednesday, May 7.

When cops stopped Rep. Vito Fossella for drunken driving, the married congressman said he was rushing to see his sick daughter on nearby Grimm St. - the home of the mystery woman who later plucked him from jail.

Fossella's spokeswoman has insisted the single mom, Air Force Col. Laura Fay, 45, was only a "good friend," but the Staten Island Republican implied to suburban D.C. cops that Fay's 3-year-old was his.

"The subject stated that he was driving down from Washington, D.C., to Grimm St. because his daughter was sick and needed to go to the hospital," a police report obtained by the Daily News reveals.

The Advance describes what happened following that report:

A frenzied day and night of rumor, speculation and gossip that began with scandal-scarred Republican Rep. Vito Fossella attending a religious ceremony for his son in Great Kills ended with Fossella hunkered down in Washington, D.C., contemplating the possible end of his political career.

The ever-widening controversy over Fossella's DWI arrest in Virginia last week and the still-unanswered questions over his relationship with Laura Fay, the divorced mom who picked him up from the Alexandria, Va., jailhouse, sent rumors ricocheting between here and the nation's capital that Fossella (R-Staten Island/Brooklyn) would either resign from office or announce that he would not stand for re-election this fall.

On Thursday, May 8, after many column inches of coverage, Fossella admitted that Fay's daughter is also his daughter.

"I have had a relationship with Laura Fay, with whom I have a three year old daughter," the married Fossella said in a prepared statement e-mailed to reporters by consultant Susan Del Percio. "My personal failings and imperfections have caused enormous pain to the people I love and I am truly sorry."

On Friday, The Advance published an editorial scolding him for his affair and calling on him to resign.

Today, the Daily News digs even deeper into his family values

Fossella shuns his gay sister, Victoria Fossella, according to a report in today's paper. He refuses to go to family events if she and her partner attend, a source close to the family told the paper.

"Has the Catholic Church now sanctioned adultery?" asked John Adrian, a 64-year-old gay activist on Staten Island.

"That just makes him that more hypocritical."

As congressman, Fossella voted to prohibit any funding for joint adoptions by gay couples and voted for the Marriage Protection Amendment, a federal prohibition on gay marriage.

He also demanded housing funds be held back from San Francisco unless it repealed its domestic partnership law.

Victoria Fossella is openly gay and marched in Staten Island's gay pride parade with her partner, according to an article published in Gay City News.

She adopted twins who were delivered by her partner, according to the story.

"She is known in the gay community and she is known in the gay community as an out lesbian," Adrian said.

Full article: Fossella scandal index | Staten Island Advance
Vito Fossella told cops he was on way to see 'my sick kid' at ... | New York Daily News
Fossella shuns his gay sister - source | New York Daily News
From a Bright Past to a Cloudy Future | New York Times