Thursday, May 8, 2008

Fossella's Hypocrisy

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."

In 2004, Fossella voted for the Marriage Protection Act, which essentially would have prevented courts from striking down the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). That bill passed in the House by a vote of 233-194 and later died in the Senate.

Later in the same month in 2004, Fossella voted for the Federal Marriage Amendment, which would have amended the U.S. Constitution to explicitly ban marriages for same-sex couples in any part of the United States. It would have been the first time that discrimination was to be enshrined in the Constitution. That bill passed in the House by a vote of 236-187 and later died in the Senate.

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.

So what's next for Fossella? We hear this charming villa has a few vacancies:


6 comments:

Unknown said...

Could you explain to me the meaning of that 'charming villa' and what it has to do with another straight hypocritical male politician destroying his own family and career, without the 'help' of us queers?

Dupontguy said...

Succinct and right on point. This post deserves wider circulation.

Anonymous said...

Obviously this conservative doesn't procatice what he preaches. Perhaps he thinks he's above the law. It's sad but I'm sure his constituents don't think he should resign. I hops his wife throws him out!

Anonymous said...

Fabulous!

Anonymous said...

Uhhh ... I don't get the "villa" reference either, guys ....

Anonymous said...

Michael: Fossella was arrested for drunk driving. If found guilty, he gets a mandatory five-day sentence in the clink, which is what the photo is of.