Rep. Issa's Unfortunate Look-Alike: Vito Fossella
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."
By Mary Ann Akers |
May 14, 2008; 3:55 PM ET
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Posted by: sasquatch | May 14, 2008 5:50 PM
This is just part of the new Republican "rebranding" :
A for Adultery,
A for rich, privileged Assclowns,
A for Abject failure.
Posted by: hjp | May 15, 2008 10:24 AM
This story would die immediately if he became a Democrap
Posted by: Anonymous | May 15, 2008 1:17 PM
I shi t out my mouth.
Posted by: hjp | May 15, 2008 1:18 PM
Hey Republicans!
See that guy pretending to be me?
He's your base, the rare guy willing
to vote for you, the guy to whom you pandered.
Nice one.
Retire, resign, just get out of way.
The adults are taking over.
Posted by: the real hjp | May 15, 2008 1:45 PM
and by adults, I mean senile old farts like Sheets Byrd.
Posted by: the real real hjp | May 15, 2008 5:25 PM
As I have said before on this site, Mark Twain said it best, "There is only one way to look at a politician, and that is down."
Basically, a politician is a guy who borrows $20 from you but only pays back $10, claiming you are even since you both lost $10.
Posted by: Buckaroo | May 15, 2008 8:04 PM
And this poll says it all. You won't believe these results!
Posted by: votenixs | May 15, 2008 9:05 PM
Basically, a Democrat politician is a guy who borrows $20 from you and then has some union thug show up at your door demanding another $20.
Posted by: Anonymous | May 15, 2008 11:07 PM
@11:07 pm
If that is your environment and experience, get the hell out of there!
Posted by: Buckaroo | May 15, 2008 11:41 PM
It's not about Democrats and Republicans.
With the approval rating of the Congress below 30% and that of the President at 30%, it's about the SYSTEM. The executive and congress are bought and paid for by the lobbists. Plain and simple they have sold themselves for re-election.
Instead of name calling we should be discussing how to re-take control of the government BY, FOR, and OF the people.
Term limits, real election reform, and no lobbies. Have the Congress pay for their own dinners, entertainment, golf, junkets, etc. and the taxpayers will re-imburse them. Transparent and accountable are four letter words to these folks.
Posted by: babooch | May 16, 2008 11:10 AM
Hey, it IS hard to tell the difference, all white guys look a like to me. :-)
Posted by: thebob.bob | May 16, 2008 12:49 PM
...so what can you say about the "evil twin" when they are both evil?
Posted by: JEP | May 19, 2008 9:18 AM
They're both crackers.
Posted by: Karl | May 19, 2008 7:46 PM
The comments to this entry are closed.
drill holes in there heads!