Rep. Eric Massa has announced he is retiring for health reasons.
Massa has suffered from non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. On a conference call with reporters Wednesday afternoon, he said he was hospitalized in December and that his doctors made it clear to him that he needed to slow down. He denied that he was retiring because of a sexual harassment claim.
From Politico:
First-term Rep. Eric Massa announced Wednesday that he will not seek reelection, saying his doctors have told him that he can’t continue to “run at 100 miles an hour.”
But several House aides told POLITICO that the House ethics committee has been informed of allegations that the New York Democrat, who is married with two children, made unwanted advances toward a junior male staffer.
A more senior staffer — Ronald Hikel, Massa’s former deputy chief of staff and legislative director — took the complaints to the ethics committee and was interviewed about them twice.
Massa says he is unaware of any charges brought against him. And the fork ran away with the spoon.
You can read the rest here. I’m too disgusted to go on except to tell you this:
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) confirmed that the Democratic leadership had been informed of the allegations before the news broke.
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"This is not culture. This is not custom. This is criminal."
What the hell is wrong with these people?
Oh that’s right, they’re smarter and just plain better than us
The silverware is getting great exercise these days. Bob Dylan has a line in the song “Blind Willie McTell”: “Power and greed and corruptible seed seem to be all that there is.”
I think of that line often these days.
I know. What a scumball. He’s lucky if his wife doesn’t kill him in his sleep.
Lovely people those congresscritters. Maybe we should build a wall around DC to keep the rest of the population safe.
New Campaign Slogan – Copyrighted and available to both parties – for a “Fee”
“Perverts, Liars and Crooks – Good For America!”
Ytik – we should just pour cement over DC like Chernobyl and start over
Now before you all throw penguin feces at me, Massa is my congress rep. Hillary backed him in the 2008 election and he won narrowly in a red district. I voted for Kuhl (cuz I am a Pub and voted 100% Pub down the ticket), but have to say that Massa was doing OK. He voted NO on Cap and Trade, he voted NO on Healthcare (with the Stupak thingy, where Louise Slaughter Queen of ProChoice voted YES), and he was still going to vote NO on this latest Healthcare Up and Down thingy.
I think he is being forced out by the liberals because he just isn’t a patsy. That is my take.
His leaving the race is causing the Western, NY Dems to go into a frenzy. The Pubs may replace Tom Reed (previous mayor of Corning, NY) with Maggie Brooks who is my County Executive. Maggie rocks in so many ways for us Pubs. It would be great to get her into congress to work for NY.
OK, my Umbrella is up…you can commence on the penguin feces hurling.
Nah no penguin shit. We use it for our gardens!
*peeks out of umbrella and wipes brow with relief*
Wouldn’t surprise me at all optix. In fact, I have delayed writing about David Paterson because I suspect they did it to him too. He has been a huge champion of women, even unto looking to make violence against women a hate crime. And then……this.
We know what happens to individuals who go against the wishes of the Obama Democratic Machine don’t we.
Maybe we should save the penguin shit for other opportunities?
The thing is, they make it so You Never Know For Sure. And they always get the press to help them. It’s as though you can’t tell the good guys from the bad guys any longer. One thing’s for sure. The White House is Chicago now.
But why would they set up a Democrat in a red area, knowing they will lose another seat? Is he a blue dog?
He is a Blue Dog. Maybe this is the way for them to get him to vote their way before November. If he knows he is leaving and they cut him a deal to drop the allegations maybe he will do what they wish him to do.
They know his district will likely go Red just because and they don’t want to spend the money on his campaign.
This way they get their way for a small window of time and get the freakin’ healthcare behemoth passed.
they are dropping like flies
Well take a look at this idiot from CA. After spouting all of his anti-gay rhetoric it’s’ so fitting that he gets caught like this:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/04/roy-ashburn-arrested-anti_n_485419.html
And I have to ask: Why does the state of CA have to give him a Tahoe? He should be driving a Prius or other hybrid for a state car.
Fredster, thank you for my belly laugh of the day! Repub – antigay, gets caught outside a gay bar, with a male passenger and charged with driving drunk. Can it get any better?
LOL Fredster, That guy falls into the “doth protesteth too loudly” category. It’s always the ones who are the most venomous who are a closet waiting for somebody to unlock it. Most people don’t even think about other people’s sexuality.
HT and UW: The repubs are the ones who are the most “pro family” (according to themselves) yet so many of them end up like this guy, caught in the act with another guy!
Actually I feel badly for the guy who was caught in the Tahoe with this two faced hypocrite !
Uppity,
Thanks for the very informative site – I especially like your links to stories on the right sidebar, which I visit often. Gave you top stars again as I love hovering over them. Optixmom, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if that is what happened to Massa. As Uppity said the WH is now Chicago. Nothing to see here…tomorrow the unemployment numbers come out and I hear they’re very bad.
Uppity, I came back to this because Massa is resigning and is now very vocal about how he was set up by his party because he was a “No Vote” for healthcare.
Bam Bam and his cronies can’t have dissent within their ranks so they have to have those who disagree implode on a national stage. I just knew this was a possibility. I also hope that the Dems in my district will be able to see what is going on and get them riled up enough to keep supporting other dissenting voices. There will be a special election.
Optix, can you give me a link sister?
Not optixmom, but how’s this one?
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/03/08/massa-accuses-democrats-pushing-pass-health-care/
Massa isn’t a Blue Dog, he’s so far let he thinks Obama Care and Cap & Trade aren’t liberal enough. He didn’t vote for health care because it wasn’t socialized enough for him.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/weblogs/watercooler/2009/aug/16/video-rep-massa-i-will-vote-against-interests-my-d/
That being said, he did get screwed.
Ironically, the reason Massa is for socialized medicine is because he claims it (via the military) cured his cancer, which is the reason he cites for not seeking re-election.