Eric Massa to retire amid allegations he sexually harassed a male staffer

[Ockham]

By JOHN BRESNAHAN & JONATHAN ALLEN & JOSH KRAUSHAAR | 3/3/10 5:01 PM EST

Rep. Eric Massa (D-N.Y.) will not seek re-election after only one term in office.

According to several House aides – on both sides of the aisle – the House ethics committee has been informed of allegations that Massa, who is married with two children, sexually harassed a male staffer.

Massa told POLITICO early Wednesday afternoon that no one has brought allegations of misconduct to him.

Asked about the sexual harassment allegations, Massa said: "When someone makes a decision to leave Congress, everybody says everything. I have health issues. I'll talk about it [later].”

FULL STORY

Yet another set back politically to Democrats. With the Charlie Rangel scandal forcing him out today, the Governor Patterson (D) of NY under fire for allegedly using his influence / power to influence a woman who filed charges against a former political staffer who assaulted her, Obama now asking Congress publicly to pass the health care bill by reconciliation, combined with two deaths of prominent Democrats in Congress and now Democrat incumbents in 16-18 states poised to lose a 2010 re-election. Add to that now Rep. Massa (D) in a [ame=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Foley_congressional_page_incident]Mark Foley (R) scandal[/ame] and it's just not a good day, week or month to be a Democrat working for the Government. Massa is a Freshman Congressman who claims he's leaving for health reasons but the man isn't discussing the scandal. If Foley's being run out of Congress is any indication of next steps, Massa should be on the way out sooner than re-election season.

 

[RightinNYC]

Oof. It will be interesting to see what else comes out here.

 

[Slartibartfast]

Finally! A Democrat who is secretly gay. I knew it couldn't all be republicans and church leaders. :rofl

Seriously, secret gay people are just funny.

 

[Navy Pride]

Finally! A Democrat who is secretly gay. I knew it couldn't all be republicans and church leaders. :rofl

Seriously, secret gay people are just funny.

You ever hear of Barney Frank and all his boyfriends???

 

[Deuce]

You ever hear of Barney Frank and all his boyfriends???

Was Barney trying to hide it and simultaneously rant and rave about family values and homosexual agendas trying to destroy America?

 

[Slartibartfast]

You ever hear of Barney Frank and all his boyfriends???

Barney Frank isn't secret about it. Therefore there is no dishonesty and hypocricy to laugh at.

 

[aps]

FULL STORY

Yet another set back politically to Democrats. With the Charlie Rangel scandal forcing him out today, the Governor Patterson (D) of NY under fire for allegedly using his influence / power to influence a woman who filed charges against a former political staffer who assaulted her, Obama now asking Congress publicly to pass the health care bill by reconciliation, combined with two deaths of prominent Democrats in Congress and now Democrat incumbents in 16-18 states poised to lose a 2010 re-election. Add to that now Rep. Massa (D) in a Mark Foley (R) scandal and it's just not a good day, week or month to be a Democrat working for the Government. Massa is a Freshman Congressman who claims he's leaving for health reasons but the man isn't discussing the scandal. If Foley's being run out of Congress is any indication of next steps, Massa should be on the way out sooner than re-election season.

Hopefully we'll get to see text exchanges where Massa asked for details about the employee's masturbating.

Xxxxxxxxx (7:52:36 PM): actually usually i dont do it in the shower

Xxxxxxxxx (7:52:42 PM): just cause i shower in the morning

Xxxxxxxxx (7:52:47 PM): and quickly

Maf54 (7:52:50 PM): in the bed

Xxxxxxxxx (7:52:59 PM): i get up at 530 and am outta the house by 610

Xxxxxxxxx (7:53:03 PM): eh ya

Maf54 (7:53:24 PM): on your back

Xxxxxxxxx (7:53:30 PM): no face down

Maf54 (7:53:32 PM): love details

Xxxxxxxxx (7:53:34 PM): lol

Xxxxxxxxx (7:53:36 PM): i see that

Xxxxxxxxx (7:53:37 PM): lol

Maf54 (7:53:39 PM): really

Maf54 (7:53:54 PM): do you really do it face down

Xxxxxxxxx (7:54:03 PM): ya

Maf54 (7:54:13 PM): kneeling

Xxxxxxxxx (7:54:31 PM): well i dont use my hand...i use the bed itself

Maf54 (7:54:31 PM): where do you unload it

Xxxxxxxxx (7:54:36 PM): towel

Maf54 (7:54:43 PM): really

Maf54 (7:55:02 PM): completely naked?

Xxxxxxxxx (7:55:12 PM): well ya

Maf54 (7:55:21 PM): very nice

Xxxxxxxxx (7:55:24 PM): lol

Maf54 (7:55:51 PM): cute butt bouncing in the air


Foley's IM Exchange With Underage Page - ABC News

 

[PogueMoran]

Um so far politico stands at odds with AP and the NYTimes. Missing from the pieces is the word sexually. Until more information comes out theres no reason to start comparing this to foley who was having inappropriate conversations with young boys. The AP and times articles state the staffer stated Massa harrassed him. This is much different than the way politico paints it. Harrassment could just as easily mean he was overly tough on the aide.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/04/nyregion


http://news.yahoo.com/news/common/pages/generic/darla/fc?cb=YAHOO.ads.darla._loaded&p=news&f=8903521&l=REC,LREC,LREC2&en=utf-8&npv=1&rn=1267737708266&em=%7B%22site-attribute%22%3A%22content%3D%27no_expandable%3Bajax_cert_expandable%3Bhealth%3B%20retirement%3B%20House%3B%20Democrat%3B%20Democratic%3B%20cancer%3B%20Republican%3B%20it%3B%20It%3B%20give%3B%20home%3B%20Washington%3B%20energy%3B%20election%3B%20health%20care%3B%20military%3Brefurl_www_google_com%3B%27%20refurl%3D%27refurl_www_google_com%27%20topics%3D%27refurl_www_google_com%27%22%7D&t_e=1&.intl=us/04massa.html

 

[RightinNYC]

Here's Massa's account of what happened:

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 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.

That's just....wow. Even giving him the benefit of the doubt and assuming that his account is accurate, that's all sorts of creepy.

 

[American]

There goes another no vote for socialized medicine.

 

[hazlnut]

You ever hear of Barney Frank and all his boyfriends???

Frank has been out of the closet for quite some time.

But tell us...what do you know about Barney Frank and all of this boyfriends...?

 

[The Prof]

barney frank

in addition to smudging his fingerprints all over subprime as chair of house financial services, bawrney allowed his gay boyfriend to run a callboy op out of the rep's boston home

fixed tens of parking tickets for the pretty little thing, in addition, and tried to get him off probation

hey, love blinds

LOL!

Barney Frank - Top 10 Political Sex Scandals - TIME

only in massachusetts

while overseeing fannie and fred in the house, barney's newest boyfirend, herb moses (a dignified gentleman more the congressman's age), was an exec for fannie (the bank), which made for another embarrassing conflict for mr frank

Barney Frank - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In 2003, while the ranking Democrat on the Financial Services Committee, Frank opposed a Bush administration proposal for transferring oversight of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from Congress and the Department of Housing and Urban Development to a new agency that would be created within the Treasury Department. The proposal reflected the administration's belief that Congress "neither has the tools, nor the stature" for adequate oversight. Frank stated, "These two entities...are not facing any kind of financial crisis.... The more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing."[48] The two companies, which together own or back more than half the home mortgages in the US became "hobbled" by loan defaults.[49] Frank clarified in 2009 that Fannie and Freddie were not in crisis at the time and many financial institutions, like Lehman Brothers, also fell into crisis from 2003 to 2008.[50]

Conservative groups criticized Frank for campaign contributions totaling $42,350 between 1989 and 2008. They claim the donations from Fannie and Freddie influenced his support of their lending programs, and say that Frank did not play a strong enough role in reforming the institutions in the years leading up to the Economic crisis of 2008.[51][52] Frank's former partner, Herb Moses, was an executive at Fannie from 1991 to 1998, where Moses helped develop many of Fannie’s housing and home improvement lending programs. In 1991, Frank pushed for reduced restrictions on two- and three-family home mortgages. During the time that Frank was in a relationship with Moses, he blocked tougher regulations on the banking companies while voting for the Government Sponsored Housing Enterprises Financial Safety and Soundness Act of 1991 and the Housing and Community Development Act of 1992.[53] Frank and Moses' relationship ended around the same time Moses left the company.[54]

 

[EnigmaO01]

There goes another no vote for socialized medicine.

Somethings fishy about this and it's not what you're implying. So far there just doesn't seem to be enough to resign over. There must be more to the story.

 

[The Prof]

massa says there's a whole lot more to it...

 

[Areopagitican]

Making sex jokes is sexually harassing? We better arrest all the guys in the United States, you know, just to nip this in the bud.

 

[Navy Pride]

I don't have a dog in this fight and I love it when Liberals fight one another but I think its a shame that because of this incident this guy is forced to resign......

 

[Councilman]

It's is not possible for a Democrat to be forced from office for anything having to to do with being gay, acting gay, and I don't believe you can sexually harass anyone in a gay way.

Having heard that this was all over an off color joke and Omama's hit man Emanuel dressed to show off his manlinessin, (I understand it was a tiny little display) went into the showers to verbally assault Mr. Massa while in the buff I would say the gay discussion should focus on the guy who wanted to do the confronting.

Obama and his people have shown once again they have NO Class.

 

[American]

How about the FBI probe on the congressman from WVa what was dropped just now after three years. Guess what, he's voting YES for healthcare. Anyone surprised that Obama, Pelosi and Reid are the Axis of Evil in this govt?

 

[Charles Martel]

Did anyone read the Prof's most educational link on Barney Frank?

I mean......would anyone else other than a Massachusetts liberal get away with this?

Widely regarded as one of the most intelligent and well spoken members of the House of Representatives:shock:, Barney Frank, a Democratic U.S. congressman for nearly 30 years and the first openly gay member of the House, almost undid his career in 1989 after an affair with Steve Gobie, a male prostitute. Although Frank was single at the time — thus not committing adultery — he did pay someone for sex (with personal funds), which is illegal in his state of Massachusetts. But the poor judgment didn't end there. Frank hired:shock: Gobie to run errands and allowed him to live at his home, where Frank obviously hoped he would be rehabilitated and renounce his life of sin. The only problem: Gobie kept on working as a prostitute — from Frank's home.

The Representative maintained that he had no knowledge that his digs were being used as a brothel :roll:and said that he kicked Gobie out once he learned what the escort had been doing there. Desperate to prove his limited culpability in the case, Frank requested an investigation by the House ethics committee. The 10-month probe found that Frank did not, in fact, know about the happenings in his home :shock:but that he should be reprimanded for use of House privilege in waiving 33 of Gobie's parking tickets :shock:and for writing a memo that attempted to end Gobie's probation for a prior infraction.

I mean...for the love of God!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[liblady]

You ever hear of Barney Frank and all his boyfriends???

is that a secret? lol.

 

[liblady]

Did anyone read the Prof's most educational link on Barney Frank?

I mean......would anyone else other than a Massachusetts liberal get away with this?



I mean...for the love of God!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

sounds like frank should have gotten the death penalty, yes?

 

[RightinNYC]

Somethings fishy about this and it's not what you're implying. So far there just doesn't seem to be enough to resign over. There must be more to the story.

Making sex jokes is sexually harassing? We better arrest all the guys in the United States, you know, just to nip this in the bud.

How are you figuring there's not enough to resign?

If a male employer went to a wedding with some young female employees, got drunk, said something to the effect of "I should be ****ing you," and then stroked that girl's hair, does anyone doubt that that could constitute sexual harassment?

A viable sexual harassment claim is reason enough for a Congressman to resign, and when you add in the fact that it's a same-sex harassment allegation, he's a married man, and he's supposedly suffering from a recurrence of his cancer, I would have been astonished had he not resigned.

 

[Charles Martel]

is that a secret? lol.

No but, his position on this Massa matter is secret, huh? Wonder what Barney thinks of all this......allegations of male staffers stuff?

Can you believe they continue to elect this absolute liar and criminal. Anyone else hires a prostitute in the House or Senate and they are DONE. Fried.

The fact that Frank still sits in that House seat says everything that needs to be said about Democrats. None of this scandal or sexual misconduct upsets them in the least, they merely use it for political gain. As they do most issues of outrage. Casper the Friendly Ghost transparence.

 

[Erod]

sounds like frank should have gotten the death penalty, yes?

He's run a gay boy brothel, and remains one of the leaders of your party.

:rofl:rofl:rofl:rofl:rofl

 

[liblady]

He's run a gay boy brothel, and remains one of the leaders of your party.

:rofl:rofl:rofl:rofl:rofl

really? i don't think that was ever proved, was it?