Posted on 03/07/2010 10:33:26 PM PST by Blonde
Rep. Eric Massa (D-N.Y.) told a New York radio station Sunday that an ethics investigation into his behavior focused on sexually-charged comments he made to an aide at a New Year’s Eve celebration, but charged he was unaware of an ethics committee investigation into the incident until after he had announced his retirement last week.
Massa said he had believed the committee was investigating an unrelated fundraising letter, and suggested that the ethics dust-up may have been orchestrated by Democratic leaders to get him out of office before the health care vote.
In an audio recording of Massa’s weekly radio show on New York station WKPQ Power 105 FM, made available via the Web site of local station 13 WHAM-TV, the New York lawmaker detailed the incident that he says is the center of the ethics inquiry.
“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.”
But Massa said that the staff member whom he made the comments to “never said to me that he felt uncomfortable,” and charged that incident was raised by another aide who had witnessed the incident.
“It was a third-party political correctness statement,” Massa said. Massa’s former deputy chief of staff, Ron Hikel, has been identified in media reports as the source of the ethics complaint.
In the radio show, Massa also accused Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) of lying about the timeline of the investigation.
In a statement released Wednesday, Hoyer’s office said the Maryland lawmaker was alerted to the allegations against Massa in early February by his staff. The statement said Hoyer gave Massa or his office 48 hours to report the complaint to the ethics panel or threatened to do so himself.
“Steny Hoyer has never said a single word to me, at all, ever, not once. Not a word. This is a lie. It’s a blatant, false statement,” Massa said.
Massa also suggested that Democratic leaders are using the ethics committee to get him out of office before the vote on health care because he voted against the House health care bill last fall.
"Mine is now the deciding vote on the health care bill and this administration and this House leadership have said, quote-unquote, they will stop at nothing to pass this health care bill, and now they’ve gotten rid of me and it will pass. You connect the dots."
The New York lawmaker said his chief of staff informed him in early February that the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, also known as the ethics committee, had begun an inquiry and would interview each of his aides, but he did not know the substance of the investigation.
“It’s not a like a normal court, you don’t get to know who your accuser is. You don’t get to know what you’re being accused of. Anyone can accuse you of anything. The trade-off for that is this is all suppose to be incredibly secret until of such time there are findings of fact,” he said.
Massa said he assumed the inquiry focused on an unrelated fundraising violation.
“There was another ethics violation, because someone released a letter under my name for fundraising,” he said.
On the radio show, Massa said he has yet to be contacted by the ethics panel.
“I still haven’t heard anything officially from any Member of the ethics committee,” he added, while re-reading the statement he released Friday announcing his resignation, which is scheduled for Monday.
The House ethics committee confirmed Thursday that it is investigating unspecified allegations against Massa.
Massa surprised political observers when he announced on Wednesday that he would not run for re-election in November. He cited a recurrence of cancer as the reason for his decision.
Preach it, Massa!
I thought this was important to post. Thank you for the ping help -everybody should see this !
Like the victims of the Bolsheviks, the Democrats never imagined THEY would be the victims of Obamunism.
How many destroyed careers for daring to stand up to the radical Insanocrats does this make, now?
Off the top of my head, I can count Dodd, Paterson, Massa, with Blanche Lincoln on the choppong block, as well.
Yeah right...lame ass!
A.
And that is the way sexual harassment law has been written and currently interpreted.
Well, obviously, there’s more to it that he’s hoping won’t come out. If it’s as simple as he describes, and if he really believes leaders are trying to force him out....then wouldn’t he stay around for the vote just to stick it to them? Must be something else they know...something we’ll never know now that he’s caved to their demand.
The minute I heard about his intention to resign on Monday, I thought, “Hmmm. Kind of like Rahm leaving a dead fish on your doorstep”. He’s resigning to keep more damaging info from coming out. And it’s a two-fer: the rest of their caucus has been sent a message: “Do it our way our you’re next”.
Yep. He’s undoubtedly right about his own party doing him in and for what. But almost by definition there’s more than he’s ‘copped’ to—or he’d be sitting tight. But it’s good that he’s at least speaking up this much.
Well, I’d feel better if he were sticking around to vote “no”.
Hmmmm. Writing that made me wonder how much pressure was applied to get him to flip to “yes”? I bet that’s what they were going for.
There’s a lot more to this story. But since it’s a Dem, the media will simply drop it now that he’s resigned.
No question they’ve been pressing for a ‘yes’—but a forced resignation is just as useful for them on this one key vote.
"Mine is now the deciding vote on the health care bill and this administration and this House leadership have said, quote-unquote, they will stop at nothing to pass this health care bill, and now they've gotten rid of me and it will pass. You connect the dots."
So why is he quitting then? There is no reason he has to quit just because of a false ethics charge, if that’s what it is. He could hang around as long as necessary.
If he wanted to prove his point, he should have offered to switch his vote, and seen that the investigation was squashed — then he could have voted no and resigned.
They might have made him a deal he could not refuse: Leave the House or leave this World. Your choice.
The words, “ethics” and “Democrat “ should never be used in the same paragraph, let alone the same sentence.
“So why is he quitting then?”
Exactly! It doesn’t add up.
Am I missing something? Nothing in the article tells us why it became necessary for him to RESIGN today. Why didn't he just keep his seat until his term ends?
Are we supposed to be more shocked at the charges against Massa than with Rangle's corrupt misdeeds. Are we not supposed to notice that the Ethics Committee moved at lightening speed to coerce Massa but took over a year to lightly admonish Rangle for just one of his multiple criminal misdeeds? I DON'T THINK SO!
He should have used a wire or hidden camera and released the threats etc on youtube.
Massa also described a profanity-filled conversation he had with White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel after he voted against the president’s health care legislation last year. Massa called on Emanuel to resign for his own use of profane language during the phone call.
“Rahm Emanuel is son of the devil’s spawn,” Massa added. “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.”
Whoa...
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