DC Trawler

Massa baited into resigning?

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I’d never even heard of Eric Massa a week ago. Now apparently he’s the most important guy on Earth. Last week he announced he was resigning from the House of Representatives because of a recurrence of cancer. Then it turned out he was under investigation for possible sexual misconduct with a male aide.

And then it got weird:

New York Rep. Eric Massa is blaming his resignation on a conspiracy by House Democratic leaders to force him out before a crucial vote on health care.

Massa was one of 39 Democrats who voted against an earlier House version of the health care bill in November. He says Democratic leaders will “stop at nothing” to advance the health care overhaul…

Facing a harassment complaint from a staffer, Massa said last week he’s stepping down from his seat Monday. He earlier announced he wouldn’t seek re-election because of health problems.

He said he learned he was the subject of an ethics complaint by a male staffer who felt “uncomfortable” during an exchange with Massa. The exchange reportedly had sexual overtones.

And here’s Massa’s account of the incident, as told to a New York radio station:

“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…

“I said goodnight to the bridesmaid. 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… 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.”

Wow. What a bombshell. I don’t want to cast any aspersions on ObamaCare, but you know your legislation stinks when its passage hinges on whether or not a congressman made a drunken joke at a wedding reception.

And now:

Outgoing Rep. Eric Massa (D-NY) had some choice words for White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel during a recent radio interview in which he called the top Obama adviser “the 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,” Massa said of Emanuel’s desire to lock up vital votes on health care reform. “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.”

So would that make Rahm the devil’s grandson? That would mean he’s merely one-quarter evil. That doesn’t sound right to me.

P.S. Okay: No. Just no.

Jim Treacher