Anti-Gay Rep. Vito Fossella Gives Up Election Bid

Two weeks after his drunk driving arrest revealed his double life with a longtime mistress and their "love child", anti-gay "family values" blowhard Rep. Vito Fossella (R-Staten Island) announced that he will give up his reelection campaign

Fossella said in a statement on his Web site Tuesday that the choice was a difficult one, based on a need to balance his "dedication to service" and "the need to concentrate on healing the wounds" that he has caused his wife and family.

The 43-year-old Republican congressman has acknowledged fathering a daughter with a Virginia woman. The two met while she was an Air Force officer working with Congress. He represents Staten Island and part of Brooklyn. The congressman's secret relationship with the woman was revealed after he was arrested for drunken driving on May 1.

The scandal has hurt GOP chances of holding on to the on Republican seat from New York City in Congress. In Congress Fossella voted in favor of a constitutional amendment that would bar same-sex marriage and against the Matthew Shepard Act which would add gays under hate crime law. He opposed an inclusive ENDA, which would bar discrimination against gays in employment, but later supported the bill after transgender protections were removed. He also supports maintaining "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" the ban on gays serving openly in the military.

He should have resigned, but that would have meant a special election - which would surely have favored any Democrat at this point.