How I Spent My August Recess: Rep. Fossella Edition

Rep. Vito Fossella, R-N.Y., appears smarter than some of his fellow congressional conservatives. He may have voted against children's health insurance. But he's not going out of his way -- writing op-eds [1] or sending blast emails [2] -- to let his constituents know about it.

It would be dicey if he did. He's been elected six times, but with decreasing margins of victory [3]. In 2006, he won with his lowest vote total yet, despite outspending his opponent 15-1. [4]

He also has a history of keeping his constituents in the dark. His hometown paper, the Staten Island Advance [5], reports:

Where's Vito?

That was our question after GOP Rep. Vito Fossella was "unavailable" to comment about the commutation of Scooter Libby's prison sentence by President George Bush last week.

...

We were also puzzled that Fossella "could not be reached for comment" that night a few weeks ago that Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced that he'd abandoned the Republican Party to register as an unaffiliated voter.

As the citywide GOP chairman of Bloomberg's 2005 re-election bid, we assumed that Fossella might have had an opinion about the switch.

Again, no.

It's all reminded us of a criticism that political opponents, and even some GOP supporters, have lodged against Fossella for years.

While he's more than willing to discuss issues that his office puts on the agenda --- fighting the Asian longhorned beetle, terrorism funding and health care for 9/11 first responders, federal aid for victims of this year's Nor'easter, to name a few worthies of recent vintage --- Fossella tends to shy away from sticky political or policy questions that could reflect poorly on the White House or the Republican Party.

But even though Fossella doesn't want his constituents to know about his vote, the NY13 Blog [6] is spreading the word. [7]

NY13 Blog notes that while Fossella doesn't want to expand coverage [6] to uninsured kids, he's happy to welcome Wal-Mart [7] to his district, a company that leaves more than half of its employees uninsured. [8]

Bring in jobs with insufficient insurance. Provide no public recourse. Feel the compassion! [9]