Domenic Recchia and Fossella's 2004 campaign

Over at the SI Advance Tom is reporting something quite surprising;

The Advance has learned that Brooklyn City Councilman Domenic Recchia leaked back-channel intelligence on Democrat Frank Barbaro to GOP Rep. Vito Fossella's campaign during the 2004 congressional race.

snip

Recchia, sources said, gave Fossella "a steady stream of information" about Barbaro's fund-raising, street-campaign tactics and advertising plans, and passed along the topics of at least two Barbaro press conferences before they occurred.

The article claims that Recchia communicated with then councilman Lanza, Fossella's water boy and psuedo appointed state senator. Lanza is not high on my list of reputable sources regarding Democratic candidates, but I do want to see how this unfolds. Some thoughts;

* Clearly Rep. Fossella is being aggressive in going after candidates this time around and this is a good position for challengers to be in

* Strategically why not wait until he was an announced candidate before making these claims. It could put the challengers in the news for a few cycles and effect fund raising.

* This may be more for Tom, and something he probably is looking into, how does one further prove or disprove any of these statements?

I am still trying to wrap my head around the article and the timing of all of this. For now all that I know is that Fossella has taken all attention off of him. While there is still a war dragging him down, this week's conversation is about someone not in Congress, not even a declared candidate yet.

Foucs on Fossella.