Rep. Massa Blames White House and House Dems For Ousting Him From His Seat

03/08/10-by Bridgette P. LaVictoire
Today, Representative Eric Massa of New York is set to retire. He had been set to simply not run for office a second time, and cited health issues as the main cause. Now, it appears that he is more than willing to lay the blame on his ouster on the ethics complaint leveled against him. Supposedly, the complain arose from a wedding celebration that Massa attended this New Years Eve, and stems from an incident that occurred while there. According to a statement from Massa reprinted in the Huffington Post:

“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.”

To top it off, Massa is stating that the Obama Administration has orchestrated his ouster over the issue of Healthcare Reform. Massa’s resignation from Congress would drop the number of people who would be required in order to make the Healthcare Reform bill pass. “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,” Massa said.

A spokesperson for Representative Steny Hoyer, the House Majority Leader, rejected this assertion outright. To be clear about something, Representative Massa is hardly facing career ending ethics charges the way that Representative Charles Rangel is, and Rangel has remained in his seat. The charges leveled against Massa are alleged to have gone on for up to eight months prior to the actual complaint, and even Massa admits that his behavior, especially in this particular incident, was inappropriate; however, the House of Representatives is certainly rife with politicians who have done far worse and still remained in their seats.

Eric Massa: Democrats ousted me over health care