Anti-Family Vito Fossella

bumped, update below

Fossella being anti-family is somewhat ironic considering his predicament. A common comment in articles and blog posts on Fossella's conservative family values is that he loved them so much he had two. With the prospect of Fossella thinking about running again it is important to take a closer look at what exactly his family values are.

The Staten Island Advance reports that possibly as far back as August 2007, Fossella removed all references to his family and children from his Congressional website despite proudly having this statement online since 1998;

In 1990, Vito married Mary Patricia Rowan. Their son Dylan Michael was born on September 30, 1995 and their second son Griffin Thomas was born on November 21, 1997.

NY Daily News;

He even shuns his lesbian sister, Victoria Fossella, refusing to go to family events if she and her partner attend, a source close to the family said.

via The Agenda;

With all of the news out in the last 24 hours dealing with Congressman Vito Fossella's extramarital affair, we thought it would be useful to remind people that the Staten Island Representative had voted not once or twice--but three times to, as many of his colleagues argued, "preserve the sanctity of marriage."

snip

In 2006, Fossella again voted for the Federal Marriage Amendment, making it the third time he chose to stand up and firmly deny same-sex couples the thousands of rights and protections that come with a federal and state marriage license.

We find it interesting that Fossella would have such strong feelings about an institution that apparently didn't have much meaning for him in the end.

Advance;

Mr. Fossella, a smart man who, we believe, has served his district honorably, made some abominable decisions over the past eight days, and obviously, well before that. And this is a man who regularly presented himself as a champion of "family values."

Scandal May Hurt Family-Values Image and Hopes for a Sixth Term

It has been a stunning fall for Mr. Fossella, the only Republican member of Congress from New York City. From the day he went to Congress after a special election in 1997, Mr. Fossella has created an image in his district of Staten Island and parts of Brooklyn as the embodiment of traditional family values.

update:
This is not the first affair for Rep. Fossella. The Post reports that he had a long lasting affair soon after his marriage while at UPenn for law school;

Before he fathered a lovechild with a Beltway mistress, Rep. Vito Fossella led a double life in law school, lying about his marriage while dating a fellow student, sources said.

snip

The romance blossomed as the slick-haired Staten Islander wasn't wearing his wedding band and told Hoffman he was single, sources said.

In reality, Fossella had married his high school sweetheart, Mary Pat, on June 15, 1990, months before starting classes at the Midtown school.

see also:
Anti-family Fossella from March 2006