Posted on 03/09/2010 4:08:44 PM PST by OK Right
It sounded like the stuff of a seedy potboiler. The American president’s chief of staff approached a congressman in the House gym shower. There, both dripping wet and naked, the chief of staff bullied the congressman for not voting the president’s way on a major issue. Each recrimination was emphasized by a poke of the finger into the nude congressman’s chest.
That’s pretty the tale former Congressman Eric Massa (D-NY) has peddled for a couple of days. Massa railed against White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, Obama and the rest of the DC swamp House Queen Nancy Pelosi promised to drain. According to Massa, his forthcoming nay vote on ObamaCare was the last straw. The White House decided he had to go. He did them a favor by stepping away from public office.
The chronicle was scandalous and potentially damning to the current administration, particularly if there was more to it. It got Massa on live television on one of the most watched TV shows in the land. Glenn Beck devoted his entire FOX News hour to the Massa affair.
Unfortunately, after those long 60 minutes, Massa didn’t offer anything we hadn’t heard before Beck interviewed him. The congressman’s parting shots as he leaves public life? Get Washington to fix Congressional fiscal acquisitions. Get involved. Vote.
Great. Instead of an explosive tell-all, Glenn Beck helped orchestrate a yawner. This was Rob Blaglojevich all over again, hoodwinking everyone on show after show.
But worse, Glenn Beck is at fault too. Sure, it’s tempting to blame Massa for the vacuous rhetoric that filled the hour, but Beck could have dug much deeper.
And it wasn’t as if the White House didn’t try to bury Massa deeper – and in the process, help Beck! 90 minutes before airtime, the proverbial “explosive new allegations” against Massa surfaced. It wasn’t just his behavior at the party that damned him. It wasn’t just tousling another guy’s hair and saying he should take him upstairs and BLEEP him – actions that Massa decided to sum up as “salty language.” According to the new charges, Massa groped an intern at a Washington apartment house. Incredibly, Massa confirmed the charges on Beck’s show. He also said he tickled the intern “until he couldn’t breathe;” that the incident was no more than horseplay. And then he revealed that for a time, he lived together with several men in the apartment. (No, Barney Frank’s name didn’t come up.)
This is not what we had in mind when we tuned into Glenn Beck’s show today. We wanted to hear more about Rahm Emanuel’s behavior; about whether Obama had conversed with Massa about the charges leveled at him; about whether Nancy Pelosi muscled Massa into resigning.
We wanted answers to the questions Glenn Beck didn’t ask. Questions like:
Senator Massa, has Rahm Emanuel threatened you more overtly since the shower incident?
Did anyone in the White House contact you and try to convince you to resign your Congressional seat?
Is the new “groping” bombshell the last skeleton the White House or anyone in Congress can pull out of your closet?
How well do you know the person you admit you groped? Would you have described it as “groping” before these allegations surfaced? Do you think the groped one was bought off? If so, by whom?
Since you claim that you’re leaving the public eye, how about some strong parting punches? Who among your colleagues of either party is the most corrupt politico and why? I know I asked you to “name names.” I do so again. Be specific.
Beck asked two pointed questions. In essence: why run if you want to change the system? And why run if you’re innocent? Otherwise, this would-be explosive hour was a whole lot of fizzle.
As his show was wrapping, Beck made the following admission: “America, I’m gonna shoot straight with you, I think I’ve wasted your time.” We respect him for that. After all, most networks use major hyperbole to sell shows, but we expect FOX News to deliver the goods. Beck knows you can cry wolf once or twice. After that, your credibility is shot.
Glen even admitted he had no idea what this mutt was going to say, which meant to me he didn’t have a set of questions and follow ups. Glen hyped this and couldn’t produce the goods. I like him and he gets to really think, but I hope he’s not one of those who came on the scene as a house on fire, only to go out as a fart in the wind.
It wasn’t a waste of our time. It confirmed how far out of touch the democrats are. Massa appears was very evasive and untruthful in many cases. This interview was not of a person with integrity who got caught up. This was an interview of a scumbag that wasn’t scummy enough for the other scum.
Malkin 1
Beck 0
I agree - it was up to Beck to ask specific questions - he deliberately didn’t, he wasted my time, not Massa. His one question, what can you tell us we don’t know? DUH!
Massa turned tail and ran from the accusations that he is a perv.
Liberalism is a mental disorder.
Rush was right. Again.
Amazing how events so often prove that El Rushbo was right all along.
Glenn had a good interview with that kooky Texas Tea Party chick — brought her DOWN!
Hannity had a surprisingly aggressive interview with the young man who videotaped the crooks at Acorn but then screwed up bigtime at Mary Landrieu’s office.
So why couldn’t Glenn ask some tougher questions this time around?
Glenn had a good interview with that kooky Texas Tea Party chick — brought her DOWN!
Hannity had a surprisingly aggressive interview with the young man who videotaped the crooks at Acorn but then screwed up bigtime at Mary Landrieu’s office.
So why couldn’t Glenn ask some tougher questions this time around?
Is there any ad that Beck & Co. would turn down? I mean the ad for having me pay for some old lady's electrified wheel chair is just obscene. Doesn't she have a family? Can't she move the wheels herself?
ML/NJ
I'd love for ol' Rahm to try that sort of horseshit around here.
IF they had enough on him to force him to resign, then obviously he isn’t going to be able to say much in public. If he was in a position to do that he wouldn’t be resigning in the first place.
This isn’t Joe Lieberman. And even Lieberman will buck them but he won’t out them.
Every time I see Emanuel the phrase feisty little fart comes to mind.
Yep. However, I do not understand the anger on my side just because Beck interviewed him. I was hoping for something helpful, but not surprised.
Frankly, Massa came off better than I expected. This business about "groping" sounds like a set up.
Beck was deliberately weak, weak, weak, IMO.
For all Beck has done this last year, has he ever shown he has the ability to ask incisive questions? He has an ability to develop patterns of behavior based on history. He has a good chalk and talk methodm but he’s no professional journalist so I expected little from Beck’s sit down with Massa.
James O'Keefe. And there'll be more to the NOLA story--Breitbart is all over it.
I do not think Beck shines at interviewing. Didn’t think he did well with Palin. But, why should he be good at everything? After all, he does not do many interviews on his show.
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