Vito, a record of failure to run on

via Brooklyn Papers;

The budget surplus has been squandered on tax cuts. The post 9-11 good will of the world has been sacrificed for an invasion of Iraq that was hyped as vital to our national security, yet has only endangered it. Our addiction to fossil fuel has not been curtailed and our environment not cleaned up. The list is endless.

But the war in Iraq, like no other issue, defines where this country is headed. During the last mid-term election season, when our battle against Taliban-backed Osama bin Laden (remember him?) was just beginning, Americans chose not to change horses in mid-stream.

Four years later, the Bush administration and the Republicans who control Congress have a record of failure on which to run. And Rep. Vito Fossella has been with the president every step of the way.

It’s too bad that national Democratic officials choose to stay away from this vital battle. As a result, Fossella’s worthy opponent, Democrat Steve Harrison, was left to fight — and raise the money needed to take on an incumbent — alone. As a result, the race has almost entirely been defined by Fossella’s campaign commercials, in which he laughably claims to be an “independent.”

Harrison is articulate, right on the issues — and, most important, would not be a rubberstamp for two more years of Bush administration failure.

We heartily endorse Steve Harrison for Congress.

I wish the storyline that is starting to repeat itself was not 'what if Steve had the support and money.' Strategists for both parties are predicting a much closer race than in 2004, so should Harrison win, and I am not more privvy to numbers than anyone else, we are looking at the absolute collapse of the Republican party with Veto in the drivers seat.