California Conservative

This morning, Eric Massa lit the fuse to today’s biggest political firestorm. Here’s what Politico is reporting:

Rep. Eric Massa (D-N.Y.) says the House ethics committee is investigating him for inappropriate comments he made to a male staffer on New Year’s Eve, and that he’s the victim of a power play by Democratic leaders who want him out of Congress because he’s a “no” vote on health care reform.

“Mine is now the deciding vote on the health care bill,” Massa, who on Friday announced his intention to resign, said during a long monologue on radio station WKPQ. “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.”

A spokeswoman for House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) rejected Massa’s charge out of hand. “That’s completely false,” said Katie Grant. “There is zero merit to that accusation.”

Since I wasn’t there, I don’t know whether Leader Hoyer’s office is telling the truth or if Rep. Massa is telling the truth. The thing that I’m certain of, though, is that this won’t end well for Democrats. What’s worse for Democrats is Rep. Massa’s accusations about WH Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel:

He had special scorn for House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, who helped get Massa elected. “Rahm Emanuel is son of the devil’s spawn,” he said. “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.”

Massa alleges that Emanuel ripped into him a number of times over votes, including in the House shower. “I am showering, naked as a jaybird, and here comes Rahm Emanuel, not even with a towel wrapped around his tush, poking his finger in my chest, yelling at me,” said Massa.

I don’t know whether the shower episode is real. What i’m certain of, though, is that it’s easy to picture Rahm Emanuel as a brass knuckles Chicago street-fighting machine politician. This wouldn’t be the first time a Chicago politician played hardball to get rid of a political opponent. It won’t be the last time, either.

Personally, it’s apparent that Rep. Massa has serious credibility issues. That said, that doesn’t mean that the things he’s accused WH Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of doing aren’t 100 percent accurate. Just because a person has credibility issues doesn’t mean that everything he’s said should be ignored.

The bottom line is that Rep. Massa’s radio interview just re-inforces the image of the Obama administration’s willingness to use Chicago street thug tactics. That wasn’t playing well before today. After Sunday’s interview, I’ll bet that fewer people will like Chicago street thug tactics.

Technorati Tags: Eric Massa, Steny Hoyer, Rahm Emanuel, Scandal, Health Care, Chicago Politics, Corruption, New York, Resignation, Democrats, Culture of Corruption, Election 2010

Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog

This entry was posted on Monday, March 8th, 2010 at 5:04 pm and is filed under Author: Gary Gross, Corruption, Democrats, Election 2010, Health Care, Obama. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.