Republicans turn up heat on Fossella

House GOP leaders, admittedly and visibly frustrated after their third-straight special-election loss, are turning up the pressure on Rep. Vito Fossella to declare his intentions, although not necessarily to decide it’s time to hang it up.

The New York Republican continued to remain silent on his future on Wednesday.

{mosads}And despite an early indication from House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) that Fossella would have until the beginning of this week to announce whether he would resign, retire or seek reelection, Fossella’s spokeswoman continued to say that Fossella will make his decision on his own time.

GOP leaders appeared to pull the plug on the lengthy silence out of Fossella’s camp.

“He’s got some decisions to make and he needs to make them soon,” said House Republican Conference Chairman Adam Putnam (Fla.).

Putnam would not elaborate on what he meant by “soon.”

Putnam and Republican Chief Deputy Whip Eric Cantor (Va.), speaking at their weekly press conference, refused to say if the pressure on Fossella to make a decision was growing into pressure to step down or retire.

After a weekend of reporting that Fossella’s retirement was imminent, media outlets in New York City this week reported that sources close to Fossella said he was determined to remain in office and would appear on the Sept. 9 primary ballot in New York.

Boehner last week said Fossella was “going to have some decisions to make over the weekend,” which many interpreted as a Monday morning deadline for the Staten Island Republican.

Earlier this week, House Republican leaders said no timeline was implied in Boehner’s statement, saying the minority leader meant only that Fossella would need to take his first weekend home on Staten Island following his arrest to confer with his family and constituents.

Democrats on Wednesday said the whole episode is illustrating how little power Boehner has within his own conference.

“It does show how weak Boehner is,” said a senior Democrat aide. “I mean, he tried to push him out the door right away and he couldn’t do it.”

Fossella was charged with driving under the influence on May 1, which led to his subsequent admission he had an out-of-wedlock child with retired Air Force Lt. Col. Laura Fay.