Thursday, December 11, 2003
They Only Eat Their Young...
Our upstate friend0 comments
I love this one.
This time, Our Man Vito's even getting it from the conservative press. From the New York Daily News:
Call John Sweeney New York City's go-to guy in Washington. Call Vito Fossella the city's run-from guy in D.C.
That about sums up the difference between these two Republican congressmen. What makes it odd is that while Fossella's district covers Staten Island and a slice of Brooklyn, Sweeney's runs from Poughkeepsie to Lake Placid. Yet the upstater is the man who time and again brings home the bacon for the five boroughs.
Ow! That hurts. But it gets better.
Sweeney played a major role in securing a pledge for $21 billion in post-9/11 aid from the feds. He got millions for the city in federal counterterror funds over the objections of Gov. [George] Pataki, who wanted the money for the state. Now he's trying to pry loose millions more for the city from the miserly Department of Homeland Security.
As for Fossella, he last surfaced as the shill for House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's capsized proposal to house GOP delegates on a luxury cruise ship during next year's Republican convention here.
"Absolutely mind-boggling," is how hotel workers' union head Peter Ward termed Fossella's desertion of the city.
"If we had a dozen John Sweeneys in Congress, Washington wouldn't be a problem for the city," says Mayor Bloomberg's spokesman, Bill Cunningham.
Y'See, Vito, when you put yourself into a spot where you're highly visible—like becoming The Official Traitor of the City of New York—everyone sorta takes a step back and forgets to return your phone calls, y'know?
Maybe it boils down to how the two won their posts. Sweeney, 48, had to battle his way to Capitol Hill. For Fossella, 38, it was almost a birthright.
Sweeney, whose father ran a shirt-cutters union in upstate Troy, worked his way through college and law school. He spent years toiling for the state Republican Party, then became Pataki's labor commissioner before winning his House seat in 1998 in a tough race.
Fossella hasn't had to fight for much more than a good parking space. Great-grandson of a congressman, nephew of a City Councilman, son of a former Staten Island ferry chief, the photogenic but unknown Vito was picked at age 29 by Staten Island GOP boss Guy Molinari to fill a vacant Council seat. In 1997, Molinari tapped him for an opening in Congress, where he fast gained a reputation as a Newt Gingrich toady.
"... a Newt Gingrich toady"?
"... a good parking space."?
Yee-ow!
These are your friends, Vito. And, presumably, Newt's as well.
This one you can't blame on the Democrats.
Here's hoping you and Tom have fun on the yacht.
posted by Gotham 8:17 PM
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