From The Washington Times :

An analysis conducted by the Center for Responsive Politics found that Madoff and his wife, Ruth, gave the bulk of their campaign contributions to Democrats. The couple donated $238,200 to federal candidates, parties and committees since 1991, and Democrats received 88 percent of those donations.

Madoff gave $11,400 to nine Republicans in the same time period. None of them is in office now. Former Rep. Jack Fields of Texas received the most - $5,000. Other recipients included former Sen. Alfonse D´Amato of New York, former Rep. Vito Fossella of New York and former Rep. Michael Oxley of Ohio.

And people wonder why one of the truisms of a progressive blogger is that mainstream media has always tilted to the right if not to the hard-right.  read more »

The New York Times:

Representative Vito J. Fossella, the one-time boy wonder of Staten Island politics, was ordered on Monday to serve five days in a Virginia jail cell after being found guilty of drunken driving in a case that upended his career.

Unless the conviction is overturned on appeal, Mr. Fossella will be housed in an 8-foot-by-10-foot cell at the Alexandria Detention Center.

So that's over, too.

You can't make this stuff up: NY-13 republicans, terrified of losing a seat they've held for thirty years or thereabouts, are trying to get disgraced incumbent, Vito "Two Families" Fossella, back in the race.

The New York Times:

[D]espite the scandals in Mr. Fossella’s personal life, he remains popular in the 13th Congressional District, which includes all of Staten Island and portions of Brooklyn. Over the weekend, Mr. Fossella receive prolonged, thunderous applause when he appeared at the opening of Mr. Lanza’s campaign headquarters.

John S. Friscia, chairman of the Republican Party on Staten Island, who was at that event, said in an interview on Tuesday that he strongly supported the idea of Mr. Fossella’s running again.

“The congressman has a tremendous amount of good will and he has the respect of the people of Brooklyn and Staten Island,” Mr. Friscia said. “I think the people respect his performance on behalf of the people of the district. He’s shown himself to be a tireless worker.”

You know what? These people are a bunch of pigfuckers. If there's one thing republicans enjoy doing, it's waving their fingers in the faces of other people - unwed mothers, gays and lesbians, agnostics, whatever - and telling them that their values and lives just aren't up to snuff. But when Bristol Palin gets pregnant, or Vito Fossella spreads his seed like something you'd expect to see at Belmont, I don't know, it's a celebration of fertility or something comparably wholesome.

Why - why?!? - does anyone take these people seriously?

Just when you thought the Republicans were ready to shed one of their sleazier, more corrupt members, it seems he is hoping for a comeback. Disgraced Republican Vito "Two-family values" Fossella wants back on the ballot after pledging he wouldn't seek re-election after his drunk driving arrest and the revalation that he was, essentially, a bigamist with two families.

From the Daily News:

Don't count out disgraced Rep. Vito Fossella just yet.

Four months after a DWI arrest and revelations about an out-of-wedlock child forced him to forgo a run for reelection this fall, the shamefaced Staten Island Republican is looking for a way back on the ballot...

There's only one problem: The election lineup is already set.

Ex-Republican Assemblyman Robert Straniere and Democratic Councilman Michael McMahon won primaries last week. Paul Atanasio is the Conservative Party's nominee; Carmine Morano is the Independence Party candidate.

A candidate can only be bumped off the ballot now if they die, move out of state or are nominated to run for a judgeship.  read more »

As personal problems and scandal ended the political career of Staten Island Congress Member Vito Fossella, some Democrats and reporters seem to have awoken to what they say is a once in a generation opportunity to turn Democratic a Congressional seat long held by Republicans. (See also SI Advance, here .) As a result, the (in my opinion, conservative) Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, local Congress Members, Democratic Party "regulars" and the Working Families Party have endorsed NYC Council Member Michael McMahon over progressive, anti-Iraq-war candidate Steve Harrison. None of these groups, thus far at least, have shown any interest in the positions of either Mr. McMahon or Mr. Harrison. My sometimes ill-informed judgment is that ignoring the merits is a mistake. The reason why Democrats John Hall and Kirsten Gillibrand beat entrenched GOP Congress Members in 2006 was that they presented clear progressive programs to counter the Bush-clone policies of their opponents. In my view, to the degree that the Democratic party presents Bush-Cheney-Lieberman-clone candidates to the voters, it will lose.

To focus then on some of the issues which are crucial, in my view, I asked Council Member McMahon some questions He replied in part and you can (and should) judge those answers for yourself.

Below, however, are three questions which Council Member McMahon didn't answer. Because I respect the abilities of those who prepared the answers, I am persuaded that the omissions are deliberate. Those omitted answers concern issues which members of the next Congress will actually face.

More war? Mr. McMahon did not state whether, were he a member of Congress, he would favor or oppose further Iraq war funding. Billions of dollars, needed at home, are funneled into Iraq-war-profiteers and into an immoral and evil war. Check it out in more detail here . If we're to believe Nobel-prize economist Joseph Stiglitz, the total tab will come to three trillion . Can Mr. McMahon say no to such squandering? He doesn't say.  read more »