http://blog.washingtonpost.com/sleuth/ en 15 Copyright 2008 Thu, 15 May 2008 15:00:00 -0400 http://www.movabletype.org/?v=3.36 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss All's well that ends well, sweetie. The Detroit television reporter who Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) called "sweetie" Wednesday as he ducked her question about autoworkers doesn't seem to be holding a grudge. The reporter, Peggy Agar, with WXYZ TV, an ABC News affiliate, says, "Frankly I have been called worse during interviews than just 'sweetie' so that really didn't take me aback right then." However,... http://blog.washingtonpost.com/sleuth/2008/05/sen_obamas_sweetie_seems_unfaz.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/sleuth/2008/05/sen_obamas_sweetie_seems_unfaz.html Thu, 15 May 2008 15:00:00 -0400 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... http://blog.washingtonpost.com/sleuth/2008/05/rep_issas_unfortunate_lookalik.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/sleuth/2008/05/rep_issas_unfortunate_lookalik.html Wed, 14 May 2008 15:55:00 -0400 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... http://blog.washingtonpost.com/sleuth/2008/05/majority_leader_harry_reid_out.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/sleuth/2008/05/majority_leader_harry_reid_out.html Wed, 14 May 2008 11:10:00 -0400 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."... http://blog.washingtonpost.com/sleuth/2008/05/waiting_for_vito.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/sleuth/2008/05/waiting_for_vito.html Tue, 13 May 2008 17:45:00 -0400 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!" --... http://blog.washingtonpost.com/sleuth/2008/05/viva_la_vito_nightclub_impresa.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/sleuth/2008/05/viva_la_vito_nightclub_impresa.html Mon, 12 May 2008 16:08:00 -0400 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... http://blog.washingtonpost.com/sleuth/2008/05/vito_fossella_hangs_on_but_for.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/sleuth/2008/05/vito_fossella_hangs_on_but_for.html Mon, 12 May 2008 14:28:00 -0400 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... http://blog.washingtonpost.com/sleuth/2008/05/jews_for_obama_oy_vey.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/sleuth/2008/05/jews_for_obama_oy_vey.html Fri, 09 May 2008 13:48:00 -0400 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... http://blog.washingtonpost.com/sleuth/2008/05/embattled_rep_fossella_consult.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/sleuth/2008/05/embattled_rep_fossella_consult.html Thu, 08 May 2008 14:19:41 -0400 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... http://blog.washingtonpost.com/sleuth/2008/05/rep_fossella_admits_to_having.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/sleuth/2008/05/rep_fossella_admits_to_having.html Thu, 08 May 2008 11:56:00 -0400 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... http://blog.washingtonpost.com/sleuth/2008/05/the_consensus_on_capitol_hill.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/sleuth/2008/05/the_consensus_on_capitol_hill.html Wed, 07 May 2008 16:43:00 -0400 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 --... http://blog.washingtonpost.com/sleuth/2008/05/hillary_fighting_for_obamas_fo.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/sleuth/2008/05/hillary_fighting_for_obamas_fo.html Wed, 07 May 2008 15:05:44 -0400 Hey, Obama Campaign, Look, Over Here! Would the Obama campaign please hush and listen to Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii) for crying out loud? He's desperately trying to tell you something - but you won't listen. In fact, you won't event take his phone calls. "I call all the time but I never get through," a wildly frustrated Abercrombie tells the Sleuth. Abercrombie, an old friend... http://blog.washingtonpost.com/sleuth/2008/05/a_frustrated_rep_abercrombie_h.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/sleuth/2008/05/a_frustrated_rep_abercrombie_h.html Mon, 05 May 2008 06:00:00 -0400 There's drunk, and then there's knee-walking drunk, to steal a phrase from Conrad Burns, the colorful former senator from Montana. And Rep. Vito Fossella (R-N.Y.) definitely fits into the category of knee-walking drunk. Fossella was arrested early Thursday in the Washington suburb of Alexandria, Va., and charged with driving while intoxicated. Now, an NBC affiliate in New York reports that the Staten Island congressman's blood... http://blog.washingtonpost.com/sleuth/2008/05/rep_vito_fossella_drunker_than.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/sleuth/2008/05/rep_vito_fossella_drunker_than.html Fri, 02 May 2008 15:30:00 -0400 Word that convicted "D.C. Madam" Deborah Jean Palfrey committed suicide Thursday morning shocked Capitol Hill, where Palfrey's most famous known client, Sen. David Vitter (R-La.), was going about his day's work. Palfrey, 52, whose prosecutorial saga ballooned into a full-fledged political sex scandal, was found dead around 11 a.m. in a shed behind her mother's mobile home in Tarpon Springs, Fla., according to police.... http://blog.washingtonpost.com/sleuth/2008/05/dc_madam_tragedy.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/sleuth/2008/05/dc_madam_tragedy.html Thu, 01 May 2008 18:58:00 -0400 UPDATE: Police now say D.C. Madam Deborah Jean Palfrey committed suicide by hanging herself. Palfrey's mother, Blanche Palfrey, found her daughter's body in a shed at the trailer park where she lives in Tarpon Springs, Fla. "Upon entering the shed located on the west side of the residence Blanche Palfrey discovered her daughter Deborah had apparently hung herself using a nylon rope from a metal... http://blog.washingtonpost.com/sleuth/2008/05/update_on_madams_suicide.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/sleuth/2008/05/update_on_madams_suicide.html Thu, 01 May 2008 16:10:00 -0400