Waiting for Vito

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."