As if Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) weren't taking enough heat already for calling the 9/11 terrorist attacks "simply" a plane crash, he now has the unfortunate problem of looking just like Rep. Vito Fossella (R-N.Y.).

Rep. Darrell Issa, left, alongside Rep. Vito Fossella.

For years the two have been confused for each other. But now, well, now isn't exactly a good time to be mistaken for Fossella, who stands accused of drunken driving and has confessed to fathering a child with his secret mistress who he romanced on taxpayer-funded overseas congressional trips, presumably unbeknown to his wife, the mother of his not-secret three children in Staten Island.

New York magazine on Tuesday ran a story titled "Vito Fossella: When Sex Overcomes Politics" and underneath the headline ran a photo of the congressman wearing - thanks to the powers of Photoshop - a big scarlet letter "A" around his neck.

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) was mistaken for Rep. Vito Fossella by New York Magazine, which published his photo with a red scarlet letter A around his neck. (New York Magazine)

The only problem was, the congressman in the photo wasn't Fossella. He was Fossella's doppleganger, Congressman Issa, who, while charged with infuriating New Yorkers with his insensitive 9/11 comments, wasn't charged with a DWI in the wee hours of the morning two weeks ago. Nor did he admit to fathering a child with Laura Fay, a retired military liaison officer to Congress with whom he has had a longtime extramarital affair.

That guy would be Fossella, whose own hometown newspaper, The Staten Island Advance, has called on him to step down over his multi-tiered scandal.

Luckily, Issa never saw the photo of himself in New York magazine's steamy online story wearing the scarlet letter around his neck. His press secretary, Frederick Hill, called the magazine and got it pulled off the web site in very short order.

As soon as Hill called to complain, New York magazine quickly removed the errant Issa photo from its web site and replaced it with one of Fossella. Though, perhaps because the photoshop idea lost its luster in the mixup, there is no scarlet letter "A" hanging around Fossella's neck in the current photo accompanying the online story.

"By the time I was able to show Rep. Issa a printed copy of the webpage, the photo had already been removed from the web site," Hill says. "Upon seeing it, he asked if it was real. I told him it was and he just shook his head."

Hill says Fossella and Issa - both of them tall, fit and swarthy - have been mistaken for each other over the years. Even New York Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer once mistook Issa for Fossella, his own state's congressman, according to Hill. But recently, hungry reporters looking for comment from the scandal-plagued Fossella have made the mistake more often, he adds.

Lauren Starke, a spokeswoman for New York magazine, says the mix-up occurred because the photo the magazine got from Getty Images was mislabeled. As for why the magazine chose not to hang the same scarlet "A" around Fossella's neck that it hung around Issa's, Starke said, "In the interest of correcting it as quickly as possible we did not replace the letter."

But, she adds, "We certainly didn't intend to tar Representative Issa with the same brush."

All authors share one obsession: constantly checking their Amazon rankings. Some do it each hour, others every other hour. And yet others, like Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.), have the luxury of delegating the task.

Reid held his premiere book party Tuesday night at Wolfgang Puck's chic new downtown restaurant, The Source, adjoining the Newseum, where hundreds of politicians, journalists, lobbyists and other gladhanders turned out to celebrate publication of the former boxer cum Senate majority leader's new book "The Good Fight."

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid celebrates publication of his new book, "The Good Fight."

Asked how book sales were going, Reid clutched his hands together and in his soft-spoken voice said, "Well, all the money is going to charity." Asked how high his Amazon ranking had gotten, he immediately answered in a more authoritative tone, "32." (Reid presumably got a little boost from his appearance on Jon Stewart's "The Daily Show" last week. His "32" ranking was where his book sales stood in the category of political science books, not his overall ranking on Amazon.)

But the senator says he personally has only checked his Amazon ranking once. "I have Susan check," he said.

Susan is Susan McCue, Reid's longtime key advisor and trusted top aide, who, as always, was front and center at Tuesday night's fette. McCue tells us she "check(s) Amazon every day" -- countless times, no doubt -- for the senator. And this morning, she emailed us to report: "It's at #18 in bios now."

Fellow Nevada Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) was the only GOP senator we spotted, unless you count Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.). But lots of Democratic senators, including Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) came out.

Also attending last night was House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), whose own book, "Know Your Power: A Message to America's Daughters" is due out in July. Not that the two Democratic leaders would ever be competing or anything -- never, of course -- but Pelosi's book is currently ranked at 141,765; Reid's is listed at 2,147. (We expect Pelosi's Amazon ranking to shoot up once the book is actually published, so stay tuned to see whether the House leader or the Senate leader will sell more books, not that there's a contest between two of them or anything.)

Reid gave a very brief speech at the party, summing up his book by saying, "In America, if I can make it, anyone can."

The majority leader's book chronicles his rise from a hardscrabble childhood in the tiny mining town of Searchlight, not far from Las Vegas, where he dealt with two alcoholic parents and a father (who ultimately committed suicide) who abused his mother, to a lawyer battling the mafia, to the top leadership position in the U.S. Senate.

And, of course, he writes about one of the more infamous stories of his youth: punching out his future father-in-law, who was trying to stand in the way of young Harry, or "Pinky" as he was known as a child, marrying his daughter.

By all accounts, Rep. Vito Fossella (R-N.Y.), who's back in Washington today preparing to vote on the House floor, is genuinely conflicted about whether he'll announce his retirement.

Fossella's hired gun, crisis communications consultant Susan Del Percio, tells the Sleuth the congressman "has not made a decision." Asked when he is expected to decide one way or another, she said, "It's on his own timetable."

That's in keeping with what fellow GOP New Yorker Rep. Peter King told us this week. King went so far as to predict Fossella could win in November if he runs for reelection, despite his problems, which include a DWI charge, a secret mistress and the 3-year-old daughter they had together.

As far as Democrats are concerned, they don't mind if Fossella decides to stick around, since he has become such a prime target for them this fall. As one senior House Democratic operative told us, "Let's let him sit there, that's fine with us. We look forward to November with him running for reelection under this new and improved Republican brand -- ethically challenged 2.0."

As we have discussed here, the bigger problem for Fossella perhaps -- more so than infidelity and drunken, reckless driving -- are those taxpayer-funded overseas congressional trips he took with his mistress, which the New York Post wrote about in detail today.

Meanwhile, Cafe Press, which sells political memorabilia online, is making a buck off Vito, selling t-shirts that read: "Vito Fossella went on a $7,000 tax payer funded trip to France that was actually a romantic tryst with his mistress and all I got was a lecture from him on family values."

Lucky for Rep. Vito Fossella (R-N.Y.), he has New York nightclub impresario John Englebert on his side.

Englebert, a.k.a. "JE," who you can see here partying at the Playboy Mansion, is offering to donate space at his nightclubs to organize "rallys [sic] and petition drives in Manhattan to keep NYC Lone Republican Congressman Vito Fossella in office."

In a press release titled "Viva Vito!" -- actually, it had eight exclamation points after Viva Vito -- and written in perfect Staten Island lexicon, Englebert said: "Bill Clinton and Governor Patterson [SIC] are perfect examples of how ones [SIC] governmental duties should not be judged by there [SIC] personal mistakes." He called Vito a "great congressman and driving force" and said "tons of Staten Islanders feel the same way."

The press release said the nightclub icon has sent a letter to Fossella. "He hopes that Vitos decission [double SIC] to stay on is felt from the people that elected him not the politicians in Washington that have never even seen Staten Island."

Meanwhile, in Washington, the left-leaning watchdog ethics group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) made no bones about where it stands on Vito's political future.

"Given recent disturbing reports about Rep. Vito Fossella's (R-NY) double life over the past several years, [CREW] urges the congressman to resign immediately," the group's executive director, Melanie Sloan, said in a written statement. "It is reprehensible that only after Mr. Fossella's DWI arrest was he forced to admit that he has two families. Aggressive reporting has also revealed that taxpayer dollars helped fund the long-standing affair. By traveling the world with retired Lt. Col. Laura Fay, Mr. Fossella used his position and public money to pursue his illicit affair."

Check out our earlier posting about Fossella's political viability.

Beleaguered Rep. Vito Fossella (R-N.Y.) continues to hang on to his job, if by a thread. But some top Republicans are rallying to his defense, with the message: don't veto Vito.

Encouraged by the support of elder New York politicians, Fossella is resisting calls from colleagues and newspaper editorials to retire. And despite the specter of a domino-like scandal with layer upon layer of problems that threaten to doom the GOP's fall reelection prospects even further, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) is not kicking Vito to the curb.

At least not overtly.

"As Rep. Boehner has said, this is a matter between Rep. Fossella, his family and his constituents," says Boehner spokesman Michael Steel.

Fellow New York GOP Congressman Peter King tells the Sleuth he thinks Fossella could actually survive the set of crises, which include a drunk-driving charge, a secret mistress and an illegitimate child, and, perhaps even more damning with the voters -- taxpayer-funded congressional trips with his lover.

Fossella is so popular in his district, says King, that "despite all that's swirling around him right now...Vito could win in November. He's extremely popular there. He has to decide what that could do to his family."

(Fossella won reelection in 2006 with a healthy but not overwhelming 57 percent of the vote.)

Describing Fossella as "a good guy," King wouldn't entertain a question of whether he thought Fossella should stay or go. "That's up to him," he told us by phone. "Let's just give him some time to try to get his head together."

Fossella, 43, a devout Catholic and outspoken proponent of "family values," and his wife, Mary Pat, have three children between the ages of 4 and 12. His drunk-driving arrest in Alexandria, Va., on May 1 exposed his long-running extramarital affair with Laura Fay, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel who he met when she served as military liaison to the House. Fossella admitted last week he fathered Fay's 3-year-old daughter.

King expressed disgust with -- who else? -- the media for its coverage of Fossella's troubles.

"The media in New York has become Vito's enemy," he said, singling out the New York Daily News and the New York Post. He says while he acknowledges there are serious issues, they "don't warrant eleven days of front-page stories with color pictures of his kids and his wife."

King, the highest-ranking Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee, says he rushed to Fossella's defense last week on the House floor after a New York tabloid reporter told him Boehner had given Fossella until Monday to announce his retirement.
King, with Fossella at his side, cornered Boehner in the back of the chamber Thursday and asked if the rumor was true.

"No, no, that's not what I meant at all," King says Boehner assured them. "I just meant we should leave him alone for the weekend."

As part of her job, Fay traveled on overseas congressional delegation trips. Which means his affair amounts to more than just infidelity: the congressman and his lover were romancing each other during the time they took taxpayer-funded trips to Europe and elsewhere.

Former GOP congressman Guy Molinari, a mentor to Fossella who held the Staten Island seat before Fossella, seems to be encouraging his protégé to stay and fight. "He's not just inclined to run. He plans on running," Molinari told the New York Post.

And why not? If Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) can skate scott-free away from his admission of infidelity with calls girls employed by now deceased D.C. Madam Deborah Jean Palfrey, why couldn't Fossella ride out his public humiliation?

Barack Obama's promise Thursday night to support Israel is just the tip of the iceberg of a vast organized grassroots effort to woo Jewish voters to support the Illinois senator's presidential campaign.

A loose coalition of Jewish groups, including JewsForObama.net, is now working on putting together an ad to run in the New York Times and perhaps elsewhere that will essentially make the case for why Jewish voters should support Obama, according to two founders of JewsForObama.net.

One of the co-founders, who asked not to be identified by name, says the ad is being written and paid for by a "loose coalition of Jewish supporters" that originated in Chicago. "They called and said, 'Can you help us?'" the Jews for Obama co-founder says, adding that the coalition is currently working on gathering signatures from representatives in all 50 states for the ad.

Sen. Barack Obama hugs Israeli Amb. to the U.S. Sallai Meridor at an Israeli Independence Day celebration at the Israeli Embassy Thursday, May 8, 2008.

"The ad will say why the Jewish community supports Barack Obama," the source says.

Another co-founder of the group, Ruth Greenspan Bell, says JewsForObama.net is trying to "set the record straight. We think much of the stuff that has been going around on the Internet is inaccurate and misleading."

Obama has been struggling to rebound from missteps and misperceptions fueled by the Internet that his commitment to Israel and the Jewish community isn't strong. First, there was the false rumor that he is Muslim. Then, there was the endorsement from Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan and the inflammatory videotaped statements by his former pastor, Jeremiah Wright, who also praisd Farrakhan.

Another source who is supporting the effort to rally nationwide Jewish support for Obama attended Thursday evening's anniversary celebration of Israeli independence, where she said she witnessed Obama and Israeli Ambassador Sallai Meridor giving each other "a big bear hug."

Obama, who was party hopping Thursday night between the Israeli Embassy and Union Station, where his campaign held a big fundraiser, told the gathering at the embassy, "I pledge to you that I will do whatever I can in whatever capacity to not only ensure Israel's security but also to ensure that the people of Israel may thrive and prosper and build on the enormous promise that was made 60 years ago."

After admitting earlier today that he had an extramarital affair and fathered a child out of wedlock, Rep. Vito Fossella (R-N.Y.), who was nailed for drunk driving last week, was spotted today huddling with the House chaplain in the back of the chamber during floor debate.

Fossella, who is married and has three children with his wife, could be seen standing on the back rail of the chamber, on the Republican side near the center aisle, in deep conversation with Rev. Daniel Coughlin, the House chaplain. One can only assume what they were discussing...

In a statement today, Fossella went so far as to name the woman with whom he has had an affair for several years. Her name is Laura Fay, a retired Air Force Lt. Col. who, as Fossella now admits, is the mother of their 3-year-old daughter.

Fossella's "love child" was exposed in his drunken-driving charge because Fay is the person who fetched Fossella from an Alexandria, Va., police station after he was charged with driving while intoxicated in the wee hours of the morning last Thursday.

Their relationship is problematic politically for Fossella, not just because of the infidelity factor, but because he and Fay traveled abroad together at taxpayers' expense when Fay was working as a military liaison to the House arranging and traveling on congressional delegations trips abroad.

The New York Daily News reports that Fay and Fossella disappeared for hours at a time during a CODEL to Europe in 2003 led by then-House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.).

Even though GOP officials privately say Fossella has little choice but to step aside for the good of the party, the congressman did not say in his statement today whether he would seek reelection. "Making any political decisions right now are furthest from my mind," he said.

Republican officials already are quietly eyeing other potential GOP candidates to run in Fossella's 13th congressional district in New York.

Observers agree, it would be tough for Fossella to hang on given his troubles. "This is isn't just infidelity, it's a multiple crisis syndrome," says crisis communications consultant Jim McCarthy, president of CounterPoint Strategies. "He's facing three or four accusations at once. Infidelity alone could be managed. A DUI alone could be managed. But if you're careening over the median strip on your way to see your lover and traveling with her on the taxpayer's dime, that's tough."

McCarthy has this advice for members of Congress who like to tip a few back: "Memo to the GOP cloakroom: take a chauffeured sedan to the Mayflower Town & Country bar next time."

Embattled Rep. Vito Fossella (R-N.Y.) admitted today that he fathered a 3-year-old child born to a woman with whom the Staten Island congressman has had an extra-marital relationship for several years.

"I have had a relationship with Laura Fay, with whom I have a three year old daughter," Fossella in a statement released by his crisis communications consultant. "My personal failings and imperfections have caused enormous pain to the people I love and I am truly sorry."

The revelation of a possible "love child" was exposed in New York press accounts of Fossella's arrest last week on drunken-driving charges.

Fossella, who has three children with his wife, Mary Pat, was charged early Thursday morning with driving while intoxicated in Alexandria, Va., about three miles from the home of Laura Fay, the woman who he now admits is, or was, his mistress.

Fossella told the arresting officer that he was on his way to pick up his sick daughter at her home in Alexandria and take her to the hospital, according to the police report. But the next day at a news conference, Fossella said he was driving to the suburbs in the wee hours of the morning to see friends.

Fossella stopped short of announcing his retirement, despite now facing a very difficult reelection race. "While I understand that there will be many questions, including those about my political future, making any political decisions right now are furthest from my mind," he said, insisting that he will "continue to do my job and I will work hard to heal the deep wounds I have caused."

The consensus on Capitol Hill is: Vito is finito.

The clock is ticking on Rep. Vito Fossella (R-N.Y.) -- or "Vino" Fossella, as the New York tabloids have taken to calling him -- who is battling not just drunken driving charges but much more personally scandalous allegations that could damage his party's prospects in the November congressional elections.

GOP political insiders say Fossella, whose blood-alcohol content was more than twice the legal limit when he was busted at 12:15 a.m. last Thursday, stands little chance of running for reelection at this point, and their Democratic counterparts agree. Buzz on the Hill and around town Wednesday was that Fossella would be announcing sooner rather than later that he won't seek another term in what has quickly become a hotly contested seat for embattled Republicans. Fossella was not voting in the House Wednesday.

The Staten Island Republican was stopped for running a red light and charged with driving while intoxicated in Alexandria, Va., about three miles from the home of a woman who reportedly fetched him from the police station seven hours after his arrest.

Fossella, who has three children with his wife, Mary Pat, changed his story a few times about why he left a Dupont Circle area bar, the Logan Tavern, and drove across the river to the Virginia suburbs.

According to May 1 police report, a copy of which was obtained by the Sleuth, Fossella told police he was on his way to pick up his sick daughter at her home in Alexandria and take her to the hospital. But the next day at a news conference, Fossella said he was driving to the suburbs in the wee hours of the morning to see friends.

Fossella was specific with the arresting officer about where he was headed. He gave a street name where he said he was picking up his daughter. That street, it turns out, is the same street where retired Lt. Col. Laura Fay lives with her three-year-old daughter. Fay, according to the New York Daily News, picked up Fossella from the police station.

When asked by the Daily News earlier this week whether Fossella fathered Fay's daughter, Fossella's crisis communications consultant, Susan Del Percio, declined to answer. "This is a demeaning and highly inappropriate question," she said.

Fossella's attorney, Barry J. Pollack, with the firm Kelley, Drye & Warren, wouldn't comment on where the congressman was headed when he was arrested. He told the Sleuth, "Where he was heading or who he was going to see really aren't at the heart of the legal case."

As for the underlying charge of drunken driving, Pollack said, "This is not the crime of the century, this is a DUI case."

Del Percio, who didn't immediately return a phone call and email from the Sleuth seeking comment, also told the Daily News that Fossella and Fay met when she worked as a legislative liaison for the Air Force.

GOP aides speaking on the condition of anonymity said they expected Fossella would announce imminently that he won't seek reelection. But Fossella spokesman Craig Donner tells the Sleuth that no announcement or press conference is planned.

The New York Times reported that Fossella could be in political hot water. The Times quoted Daniel Kramer, an emeritus professor of political science at the College of Staten Island, as saying, "If it's just a matter of his being arrested for drunken driving, it won't have wide-ranging implications for him, politically. But if it turns out there are more disclosures regarding his behavior and his personal life, it would well affect him."

Fay's ex-husband, Guy Michael Shoaf, filed for divorce in 2005. According to their divorce records in the Circuit Court of Arlington County, "there were no children born or adopted of the marriage" between them.

Fossella faced up to five days in jail if convicted. According to the police report, the congressman was so drunk he couldn't accurately recite the alphabet from the letter "D" through "T." According to police, he said, "D, E, F, H, G, H, I, J, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T." He "stumbled" on the one-legged stand test and was "swaying" when he performed the heel-to-toe test, according to the report.

Fossella's breath test was a .17, which is more than twice Virginia's 0.08 legal limit.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) raised eyebrows Tuesday night in her Indiana "victory" speech when she said: "I say it's time to freeze foreclosures for families most at risk of losing their homes, including our soldiers who are in harm's way and are being foreclosed on here in America."

Funny enough, legislation to do just that -- freeze foreclosures for veterans and military families -- is moving through Congress. The bill, sponsored by Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), was tacked on to a housing bill now in conference between the House and Senate.

But Clinton is not a co-sponsor of the bill. Her Democratic presidential primary rival, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), is.

One congressional aide (and obvious Obama supporter) said, "I guess Hillary was right after all when she said one candidate just offers pretty speeches. Unfortunately, it looks like what happens in Indiana stays in Indiana."

Or maybe Clinton was plugging Obama's bill, and this is the first step toward unity and healing.