[tomder55]

Eric Massa (D-NY) quit his seat in Congress last week . At first he floated the ballon that he was leaving because the cancer he had battled had come back.

Then the story started going around that he had sexually harassed 2 male aides at a New Year's Eve wedding party . He left town ahead of ethics committee hearings .

Then a degree of the truth began to emerge. Turns out that Massa had been one of 2 extreme libs(Kucinich being the other ) who had voted AGAINST HR3200 health care reform because it was not a single payer gvt. Run plan.
Rep. Massa: I will vote against the interests of my district - Water Cooler - Washington Times

With him out, and a special election not slated until after the House votes on the Senate version ,Pelosi will need one less vote to get a majority.

Massa over the weekend began opening up about what he thinks really happened ;and it isn't pretty if he is telling the truth. Where he admits he used "salty old sailor " language with the staffers ,he denies harassment charges.

“On New Year's Eve, I went to a staff party. It was actually a wedding for a staff member of mine; there were over 250 people there. I was with my wife. And in fact we had a great time. She got the stomach flu,” he said.

Massa explained that he then danced first with the bride, who was not identified, and then with a bridesmaid. He said multiple cameras recorded the incident.

“I said goodnight to the bridesmaid,” Massa continued. “I sat down at the table where my whole staff was, all of them by the way bachelors.”

“One of them looked at me and as they would do after, I don't know, 15 gin and tonics, and goodness only knows how many bottles of champagne, a staff member made an intonation to me that maybe I should be chasing after the bridesmaid and his points were clear and his words were far more colorful than that,” Massa said. “And I grabbed the staff member sitting next to me and said, 'Well, what I really ought to be doing is fracking you.' And then [I] tossled the guy's hair and left, went to my room, because I knew the party was getting to a point where it wasn't right for me to be there. Now was that inappropriate of me? Absolutely. Am I guilty? Yes.”

Massa Details Ethics Case Against Him, Blames Democratic Leaders - Roll Call

On a weekend radio address he rambled on about masturbation in the Navy to having a naked encounter with Rhambo Emanuel in the Congressional gym locker room.

"I am sitting here showering, naked as a jay bird and here comes Rahm Emanuel not even with a towel wrapped around his tush, poking his finger in my chest yelling at me because I wasn't going to vote for the president's budget. Do you know how awkward it is to have a political argument with a naked man?" ... "It's ridiculous."
"Rahm Emanuel is son of the devil's spawn," ...."He is an individual who would sell his mother to get a vote. He would strap his children to the front end of a steam locomotive."

But he also made it clear he thought he was railroaded out of the House.
"You think that somehow they didn't come after me to get rid of me because my vote is the deciding vote in the health care bill? Then, ladies and gentlemen, you live today in a world that is so innocent as to not understand what's going on in Washington, D.C."

The opinion of Emanuel is almost universal and although it is conceivable that Congressmen act like frat boys in the locker room ;as much as I like the narrative of the Democrat meltdown ,I just don't find Massa a credible player .

Formerly he was a Republican staffer to the Republican majority on the House Armed Services Committee. But he quit because he claimed he was opposed to the stategy used in the Iraq war. Turns out that it had more to do with his personal friendship with former General Wesley Clark,and that he had not resigned but was forced out by committee chairman Duncan Hunter .
So in Massa's world ,first he was forced out by the Republicans and now he is forced out by the Dems.

Massa is now on the cable news circuit spewing his tale of woe to anyone willing to listen. Fox News ought to think twice before they use him too much . The guy is a sleeze with no credibilty .He went from war hawk to dove;from blue dog to progressive in a few short years. And now he is remaking himself again as a champion and martyr of the opposition to the Democrat Health care plan ?
Somehow he just doesn't pass the smell test.

[excon]

But he also made it clear he thought he was railroaded out of the House.

Somehow he just doesn't pass the smell test.

Hello tom:

He's just passing the buck, like the slimeball he is. Like Charley Rangel, he didn't HAVE to quit.

excon

[tomder55]

He's also delusional in his sense of self importance. He thinks that he is being dumped because he is the "deciding vote "... I have been following the informal whip counts closely. Pelosi with him gone needs 216 votes . Currently she can count on less than 200. She has a lot more arm twisting to do.

As for Rangel ,all he did was temporarily give up chair of the House Ways and Means Committee . He is hanging tough ,but I see orange jumpsuits in his future.

[spitvenom]

Isn't Glenn Beck giving Massa his entire hour today?

[tomder55]

I don't watch Beck ,but as I understand it Beck ,Limbaugh and Larry King have already featured him . They are making a mistake.
No doubt he will bring his sleazy story to Oprah soon also .

[speechlesstx]

I'm seeing a whole new series of SNL Congressional shower skits coming up.

[speechlesstx]

Beck should definitely reconsider giving Massa an hour on his show today. I can't imagine what he might have told Beck in private that would convince him he's got some smoking gun.

Don't Embrace Eric Massa

[tomder55]

As reported by Dana Milbank at the Washington Compost ;Beck had him on as scheduled .But at the end of his show ,he publicly apologized to his audience for wasting their time.
Dana Milbank - Massa flirts with the right, but Beck isn't tickled

I think it's safe to say Massa is yesterday's news.

Best bet is that the Dems ;knowing that his district NY 29th will return to Republican control ,will wait until the November elections to vote for his replacement .

Under NY rules a Special Election must be held 30 to 40 days after the governor declares the seat empty. But there is nothing that compells the Governor to make such a declaration. The seat is empty now. The Governor knows it . But a political decision will most likely be made to delay the declaration. This serves Pelosi because although there will be one less Dem in her caucus; she lost a no vote on the Health Care legislation.

[twinkiedooter]

One has to wonder why grown men would take a shower anywhere but in their own shower at home? What for malarkey is this anyway?