Oh, what a tangled web...

It's shameful, I know, but I enjoy the stories of “family-values,” law-n-order rich-guy politicians who get caught with their pants down – the more so if it's pretty much literally true.

Generally speaking, I believe in cutting people much slack for human failings, and I strongly believe that the news people should stay the hell away from stories about politicians' personal lives unless their actions are directly and clearly relevant to their job performance.

However...

Pols who rant and rave about the immorality of others, build their careers on those rants, and demand purity of all others deserve anything they get when their hypocrisy is exposed.

In that mean spirit, then, I am enjoying the information I just picked up from the New York Times about New York Republican Congressman Vito Fossella, New York City's only Republican congressman, who represents an enclave of the rich on Staten Island. He's mentioned in the essay just below this about the economic “stimulus” package.

Seems that Vito got caught driving drunk –- his blood alcohol content was double the legal limit –- after a little party at the White House that may have been continued elsewhere.

Because of a false excuse he gave to the arresting officer, it came out that the professionally moral, upright and hard-law-enforcement boy has, in addition to his wife and three kids on Staten Island, a mistress and daughter in Alexandria, Va., and lives with them while defending righteousness in Congress. Officially, he has no Washington area address.

No further comment needed.