Voters want Democrats handling economic issues

via the NY Times;

Strategists for both parties say Republican House and Senate candidates are being hurt by the dip in support for Senator John McCain at the top of the ticket, frustrating Republicans who had initially viewed Mr. McCain as a strong asset who could appeal to independents and even moderate Democrats and protect Republicans in a tough year.

But the market volatility and perceived Democratic edge on handling the economy has evidently turned voters to Democrats, a view supported by one top adviser to Republican candidates.

If it were not for the joke this race is, one of the story lines that would have come out of this race was the effects a Guiliani candidacy would have had in this district. Who knows maybe even Bob from Manhattan would have been faring better with Rudy at the top instead of McCain.

Vito Fossella and the IAFF

The International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) donated $1,000 to Rep. Vito Fossella's campaign last quarter, and it seems contrary to all of their political efforts. First and foremost I have the utmost respect for the IAFF. They are a tremendous organization and recently did some great ground work for Sen. Dodd's presidential campaign. And that is why this contribution intrigues me. The IAFF has spent quite a bit of time exposing Rudy Giuliani and his real record regarding disastrous decisions before and after September 11th. While that was going on Rep. Vito Fossella was hard at work negating the IAFF and trying to get Rudy Giuliani elected.

It is not just that Vito endorsed Giuliani. Many elected officials passive endorsed presidential candidates. The bigger problem is the Vito campaigned hard for Rudy Giuliani.

"We helped him out immensely here," said Fossella. "We had people making phone calls and doing other things. You don't have to be physically located in the state to help him. Everything makes a difference. We made a pretty good showing in the Rudy Giuliani campaign."

Fossella took part in a conference call with Giuliani and present and former House members recently, and also has appeared on television to tout Giuliani's campaign.

and then there is this piece where Vito praises Giulaini's leadership post September 11th;



To the fire fighters who worked effortlessly to expose Rudy Giuliani's horrible decisions and poor leadership I would ask you to take a look at the Democratic candidates in this race and see if they do not better represent what you are fighting for and who you want in Washington DC.

update: Going through some previous posts I found this;

Fossella is the only New York City member of Congress to not sign on to Nadler's letter asking Congress for money to fund the health care needs of our first responders suffering from various ailments related to contamination of the area around Ground Zero.

and this;

So while Rep. Vito Fossella used his sound bites to say terror! as often as possible, it wasn't until Rep. Nadler (D) spoke second, that he brought up the point about President Bush refusing to cover the costs of medical tests and treatment for our own firemen. Given the chance to use his appearance to demand funding medical coverage for these first responders, Rep. Vito Fossella instead used his time to praise President Bush.

Vito Fossella's Giuliani Problem

I was preparing a post on Rudy's demise and histortic departure from his presidential race when I came across a similar post on the Albany Project that went a step further and clarified the implications of Rudy dropping out on the state. Via the NY Daily News, h/t to the Albany Project;

The effects of Rudy Giuliani's departure from the presidential race are rippling into the upcoming battle for control of the state Senate.

Republican state lawmakers banked on the former mayor's White House bid to stimulate the party base when New Yorkers head to the polls and stave off Democratic rule at the Capitol.

snip

Baruch College political science Prof. Doug Muzzio agreed Republican domination of the Senate is jeopardized by the double whammy of Giuliani's quitting the race and Clinton's potential ascension as the Democratic presidential nominee.

While the article is focusing on the control of the state senate the result is just as bad for Rep. Fossella. He endorsed Rudy Giuliani, in spite of the International Association of Fire Fighters opposition to his candidacy, with some hopes that New York City's favorite Republican son would be atop the ticket driving Republicans to the polls. Now not only will Rudy not be on the ballot but now Sen. Clinton may top the Democratic side doing the opposite of his desires, driving Democrats who may only be interested in the Presidential race to go to the polls and vote, potentially voting for the Democratic Congressional candidate as well.

Vito Fossella's Giuliani Problem

The NYTimes has a devastating piece on the realities of Rudy deciding to place the emergency command center at the World Trade Center despite experts recommendation against it;

The New York Police Department produced a detailed analysis in 1998 opposing plans by the city to locate its emergency command center at the World Trade Center, but the Giuliani administration overrode those objections. The command center later collapsed from damage in the Sept. 11 terrorist attack.

“Seven World Trade Center is a poor choice for the site of a crucial command center for the top leadership of the City of New York,” a panel of police experts, which was aided by the Secret Service, concluded in a confidential Police Department memorandum.

The memorandum, which has not been previously disclosed, cited a number of “significant points of vulnerability.” Those included: the building’s public access, the center’s location on the 23rd floor, a 1,200-gallon diesel fuel supply for its generator, a large garage and delivery bays, the building’s history as a terrorist target, and its placement above and adjacent to a Consolidated Edison substation that provided much of the power for Lower Manhattan.

This is the man Rep. Vito Fossella has endorsed and wants to be President of the United States. So when you hear Fossella spouting security concerns and the need to continue his war in Iraq because we are safer ask yourself (or him for that matter) why he is putting politics above those concerns? Does he support recommendations of experts or does he support Giuliani for the political gain he receives.

More Rudy

Poor Vito. If only Giuliani could wrap up the Republican nomination Fossella would probably gain several percentage points in his re-election attempt. But he just keeps getting bad news;

...the [Conservative] party is likely to give an early nod to Fred Thompson if he manages to "break through" in South Carolina.

and more bad news;

CNN has learned that top staff members of Rudy Giuliani's presidential campaign were asked to work without pay for the month of January, and perhaps longer, so that campaign resources could be focused on the Florida Republican presidential primary.

Two sources in the campaign, speaking on condition of anonymity, insisted the campaign was not in dire financial straits. A third campaign source, however, said "things are starting to get tight" and that "it was more telling than asking" the senior staff to forgo paychecks beginning the first of the year.

More Rudy

via Liz Benjamin;

Panicked by Rudy Giuliani's tanking presidential campaign, New York Republicans are contemplating abandoning him in favor of a man who ditched them months ago.

"Rudy's downward spiral has caused enough concern that there have been conversations about whether people will continue to support him or cut their losses now and jump on the Bloomberg bandwagon," said one GOP insider who has been privy to the talks.

Rudy finished 6th out of 7 in Iowa.
Rudy finished tied for last in Wyoming.
Rudy is likely to finish 4th or 5th out of 6 in Hew Hampshire.



That large drop off of Rudy's trend line is not just the chances of him winning the nomination free falling, it is also the downward trend of Rep. Fossella having a Republican nominee on top of the ticket with strong NY ties who would have driven Republican voters to the polls this fall.

Veto Fossella's embrace of Rudy Giuliani

This is the man Rep. Fossella wants to be president of our country;

Before Saturday's GOP debate, several members of the 9/11 recovery effort will be stationed outside the forum petitioning the former New York City Mayor to discuss the mishandled health safety issues following the 2001 terrorist attacks.

More Rudy

"Republican Giuliani Plummets In National Poll", via the WSJ;

After holding a double-digit advantage over his nearest rivals just six weeks ago, the former New York City mayor now is tied nationally with former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney at 20% among Republicans, just slightly ahead of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee at 17% and Arizona Sen. John McCain at 14%. Other polls show Mr. Giuliani's lead shrinking in Florida, one of the states he has based his strategy around.

see also:
Rudy's poor showing is bad news for Vito Fossella

Giuliani's poor showing is bad news for Vito Fossella

via the NY Sun;

Rudolph Giuliani's decision to largely abandon the early voting state of New Hampshire and concentrate his efforts on the Florida primary three weeks later reflects an uncomfortable truth for the former New York mayor: The more he campaigned in the Granite State and the more he spent on advertising there, the more his poll numbers dropped.

snip

He must now be sure to win Florida on January 29 to capture its large cache of delegates, as part of a strategy that sees him withdrawing from the smaller early states in favor of states such as New York, California, and Florida, which send large numbers of delegates to the nominating convention.

However, the wisdom of that strategy was cast in doubt yesterday by the latest poll in Mr. Giuliani's home state of New York showing the mayor's lead over his nearest Republican rivals cut by 11 points.

Any decline by Rudy is good news for Harrison and Recchia. Should Giuliani win the Republican nomination it will be a difficult, maybe impossible road ahead for the Democrats here as Rudy will undoubtedly run extremely well in Staten Island and easily poll several points above any other Republican candidate. As I discussed in my very first post Fossella and Bush pulled nearly identical numbers in each AD back in 2004 while the Democratic candidate Frank Barbaro saw down ballot attrition caused by John Kerry voters turning out to the polls in large numbers but not voting past the office of President. In another presidential year the Democrats benefit from a Republican Presidential candidate that does not excite New Yorkers.

see also:
Rudy Continues his Death Spiral
Giuliani tries to revitalize campaign in Florida
Rudy Giuliani's Poll Numbers Tank in New Hampshire

Fossella's President to cut funding to NYC security

Via the Associated Press;

A Bush administration plan to slash antiterror grant programs by more than half would threaten the safety of U.S. cities, New York politicians charged Saturday.

Sen. Charles E. Schumer, DN. Y., blasted the administration's plan to eliminate some port and rail security programs and to cut Homeland Security grants for states and cities from $3.4 billion in the fiscal year 2007 to $1.4 billion in 2009.

Senators Schumer and Clinton along with representatives of Mayor Bloomberg have all spoken strongly condemning President Bush's short sighted and outrageous plan to cut security funding which would drastically impact New York City. Rep. Fossella has also joined the chorus attacking this illogical plan. Via the Advance;

"America can't afford to take this giant step backwards in fighting the terrorists. This proposal would gut funding for New York's police officers, firefighters and other emergency responders. It would make our city more vulnerable to a terror attack. I will do everything in my power to make sure this proposal is defeated."

The difference between these officials speaking out against the President's plan is that unlike the two Senators Fossella worked to give President Bush another term in the White House. He works to empower these decisions that come back to bite us. Where is Rep. Fossella's clout with his own party to prevent these disastrous ideas from ever coming to fruition? Now he is working to elect Rudy Giuliani despite the criticism from New York City's bravest and his sub par record on adequately equipping our responders. We can't afford more of Fossella's friends in the White House. We can't afford more of Fossella.

We have already seen that Fossella's lack of clout means he can't get disaster relief funding for his district. He can't get simple honorary motions passed in Congress. Now security funding is going to be cut by the leader of his own party. It is not just that Vito Fossella has no clout in DC he has no respect from anyone else in DC.

Vito Fossella, Rudy Giuliani and Bernard Kerik

via Boston.com;

''Bernie Kerik knows the needs of New York City and how to fight terrorism better than anybody," Fossella said.

Then we find out last week, via MSNBC;

Bernard Kerik, the police commissioner under former Mayor Rudy Giuliani who nearly became head of the Homeland Security Department, will surrender to authorities Friday to be arraigned on criminal charges, an official said Thursday.

snip

Prosecutors have been presenting evidence to a federal grand jury in White Plains for several months to consider charges against Kerik including tax evasion and corruption.

Kerik was recommended by Rudy Guiliani for the post of Homeland Security chief and as we see above quickly endorsed by Rep. Fossella for the position. It comes as no surprise that Fossella who endorsed Guiliani, supports more government corruption and would want someone like Kerik in charge of Homeland Security. This is how Fossella operates. Corruption knows no bounds. Politics trumps qualifications even when it comes to our own security.

Fossella, SCHIP and Giuliani

Tomorrow the House will vote to override President Bush's veto on the state sponsored children's health care program SCHIP. The bill which passed both the House and Senate with majorities would expand health care coverage to 10 million uninsured children. President Bush has said that is too much in an effort to deny coverage so as to not compete with private insurance company profits at the cost of this nation's most vulnerable.

Rep. Vito Fossella has come out in support of SCHIP and did vote for it unfortunately however after voting against it on the House floor. So he is making progress in the right direction. The problem that remains is that the bill is a handful of votes short of achieving a veto-proof override in the House, something the Senate does have. While Fossella has sent his staffers and PR managers out to write op-ed pieces and letters to the editor to suddenly champion this cause, he has done little in terms of working to get this bill past the President's veto. To my knowledge he has not managed to convince any of his fellow Republicans who voted no to change their vote. He has not gone on Sunday morning talk shows to debate and speak against those denying this bill's chances of passage.

But to really look at his 'support' for SCHIP you need to take a step back and look at some other indicators, such as his endorsement of Giuliani for President. Rudy has stated that he supports President Bush's veto, via AFL-CIO;

NBC News quoted Giuliani as supporting Bush’s veto, saying the SCHIP bill expanded coverage too broadly.

"We’re going to take people off private insurance and put them on government insurance—that’s a disaster."

When you look at this issue in its totality, Fossella has voted once against this bill, Fossella has done nothing to work aggressively towards its passage and Fossella continues to support a Presidential candidate who given the chance would also veto this bill once he is in the White House. So how can Fossella really support SCHIP if all he does is show up once to vote for it after knowing the bill would pass with or without him. If Fossella actually supported SCHIP he would be doing more than defending his first no vote, like defending our children and their need for healthcare access.