The evasive Vito Fossella

Tom Wrobleksi, in one of his often rare feats of political journalism actually spends an entire article taking Fossella to task for his political avoidance of commentary on national issues of importance. The article seems to have evolved out of an attempt to get Rep. Fossella to comment on President Bush's pardon of Scotter Libby, which Fossella never does. Tom follows up with wonderful pullquotes of;

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.

He draws out the idea that Fossella will only pick safe battles and will maneuver his staff to field difficult questions, often times making himself busy and unavailable despite the national political implication and scope of the situations in question. Why this is any suprise, Rep. Fossella wouldn't even show up to his own debates in 2004 against Frank Barbaro and instead would send his staff.

Speaking in broad terms, Richard Flanagan, a political science professor at the College of Staten Island, said, "I do think the electeds have an obligation to speak to the press."

Failing to do so, he said, ends up hurting the lawmakers' constituents, who rely on the media, in some measure, to get "a sense of what the elected official is up to."

The reality may be in fact that is all comes back to Fossella's unwaivering support of President Bush when no one is looking;

Fossella tends to shy away from sticky political or policy questions that could reflect poorly on the White House or the Republican Party.

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