Massa’s Ungraceful Dismount

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On his last day in office Rep. Eric Massa seems to have snapped awake from the shellshock of the Ethics Committee investigation into his alleged inappropriate language around a young male staffer which Politico is reporting was sexual harassment. Gone is the contrite politician who said in an open letter Friday on his website, “I own this reality… My difficulties are of my own making. Period.”

Apparently, Massa now believes his difficulties are of the making of the Democratic leadership. In his weekly WKPQ radio blog on Sunday he lambasted House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer for informing reporters of the ethics case, about which Massa says he wasn’t even aware (Massa retired due to cancer but planned on fulfilling his term until the ethics charges surfaced). Hoyer’s goal, Massa asserts, was to get him out of office ASAP because of his “Nay” vote on health care. From a Hotline story this morning:

“There’s a reason that this has all happened, frankly one that I had not realized,” Massa said on WKPQ radio on Sunday. “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’ll pass.”

[…]

“I was set up for this from the very, very beginning,” he added. “The leadership of the Democratic Party have become exactly what they said they were running against.”

Given Denny Hastert’s rapid meltdown during the Mark Foley scandal, it’s not hard to see where Hoyer was coming from. And several House Democratic sources told me Friday that Massa’s exit couldn’t be quick enough for them. And clearly the leadership didn’t set up Massa’s ethics woes, he did that all himself. And Massa should be careful throwing stones. Already this morning there are lascivious anonymous rumors (which I don’t feel comfortable linking to here but aren’t hard to find on google) swirling this morning about Massa’s time in the Navy.

Update:
Glenn Beck tweets Massa will be on his show tomorrow for the full hour. So it looks like, much to the Democratic leader’s delight, I’m sure, the story is gonna stick around for a while.