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What did Cardinal Hastert know,; and when did he know it?
Topic Started: Mar 3 2010, 03:39 PM (192 Views)
George K
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Finally
I'm sorry, did I say Hastert?

I meant Hoyer.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0310/33864.html

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

Quote:
 
First-term Rep. Eric Massa announced Wednesday that he will not seek re-election, saying his doctors have told him that he can’t continue to “run at 100 miles an hour.”

But several House aides told POLITICO that the House ethics committee has been informed of allegations that the New York Democrat, who is married with two children, sexually harassed a male staffer.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) subsequently confirmed Wednesday that the Democratic leadership had been informed of the allegations before the news broke.

"I’ve heard of that allegation before," he said. "I had some indication, yes, but I don’t want to go beyond that. And my presumption (is) it's being pursued in the course of business."

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

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

Massa has suffered from non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. On a conference call with reporters Wednesday afternoon, he said he was hospitalized in December and that his doctors made it clear to him that he needed to slow down. He denied that he was retiring because of a sexual harassment claim.

"Do I or have I ever used salty language when I’m angry, especially in the privacy of my inner office or even at home? Yes, I have, and I have apologized to those where it's appropriate," Massa said. "But those kinds of articles, unsubstantiated without fact or backing, are a symptom of what's wrong with this city."

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QuirtEvans
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I Owe It All To John D'Oh
So far, I don't see anything beyond vague claims of sexual harassment. Was the guy gay?

If you treat everyone the same, it may be harassment, but it's not illegal harassment. It's known as the "equal opportunity offender" defense. Needless to say, attorneys don't recommend relying on it ... because it's an admission that you are awful to everyone, and juries tend to punish those sorts of people. Without more, there's nothing here to suggest that he did anything illegal. I'm sure there are more facts to come, but this is pretty thin.

And if the guy has non-Hodgkins lymphoma, that seems like a pretty good reason to get out.
It would be unwise to underestimate what large groups of ill-informed people acting together can achieve. -- John D'Oh, January 14, 2010.
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The 89th Key
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NY Governor Spitzer - resigned after caught with prostitutes, infidelity
NY Governor Paterson - ethics violations, court interference, infidelity, drugs (some prior to taking office, of course)
NY Congressman Massa - resign after sexual harassment claims from a male staffer
NY Congressman Rangel - ethics violations, unpaid taxes

A good couple of years for NY democrats! :thumb:
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QuirtEvans
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I Owe It All To John D'Oh
You've got a good point on 3 of 4. That would make a great batting average, but a terrible field goal percentage.
It would be unwise to underestimate what large groups of ill-informed people acting together can achieve. -- John D'Oh, January 14, 2010.
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The 89th Key
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Good thing we are playing Hardball! :biggrin:

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George K
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Finally
QuirtEvans
Mar 3 2010, 04:13 PM
And if the guy has non-Hodgkins lymphoma, that seems like a pretty good reason to get out.
Of course the fact that Massa got $74,000 from Charlie Rangel has nothing to do with his resignation either.
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Renauda
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HOLY CARP!!!
Who's Cardinal FartstartHastert? A baseball player or a red bennie?
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George K
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The 89th Key
Mar 3 2010, 04:42 PM
Good thing we are playing Hardball!
And How:

Massa voted against the House bill in November because it did not go far enough. Evidently, he has earned the wrath of the White House, and he has a story to tell:

http://www.noquarterusa.net/blog/2010/03/08/ousted-congressman-exposes-obamas-chicago-tactics/

I won't embed the links, it's a PITA, but you can go to noquarterusa.net and get them

Congressman Exposes Obama’s Chicago Tactics (with updates)

Well, I’ll be! Rep. Eric Massa is not “going quietly into that good night,” and solemnly resigning from the House, despite iffy allegations that he sexually harassed a male staffer as well as his bout with cancer. Instead, Massa is alleging there was “an orchestrated campaign to force his resignation” because, with Massa gone, there’s one less vote to get to pass Obamacare in the House.

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

“There is not a single member of the Democratic freshman class who is going to vote against this health care bill now that they’ve got me” …


Massa may have been a career naval officer but he is not being an obedient soldier and obeying the demands of the bullying White House and Nancy Pelosi, who targeted the New York Democrat for his “no” vote on Obamacare. Here’s what Massa told a radio station today, via Roll Call:

Quote:
 
“I’m not going to be a Congressman as of 5 o’clock [Monday] afternoon. The only way to stop that is for me to rescind my resignation. That’s the only way to stop it. And the only way that’s going to happen is if this becomes a national story.”

“Mine is now the deciding vote on the health care bill, and this administration and this House leadership have said, ‘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 Several times during the broadcast Massa raised the prospect of rescinding his resignation if national news media picked up on his story of being railroaded out of office by Democratic leaders. …


Is Nancy Pelosi using an ethics investigation to embarrass Massa and force him out of office? This is nothing new to Massa. Check out what Rahm Emanuel did to Massa when he voted against the cap & trade bill. From “Massa Implicates Emanuel, Dem Leaders“:

Quote:
 
“When I voted against the cap and trade bill, the phone rang and it was the chief of staff to the president of the United States of America, Rahm Emanuel, and he started swearing at me in terms and words that I hadn’t heard since that crossing the line ceremony on the USS New Jersey in 1983,” Massa said. “And I gave it right back to him, in terms and words that I know are physically impossible.”

“If Rahm Emanuel wants to come after me, maybe he ought to hold himself to the same standards I’m holding myself to and he should resign,” Massa said. (National Journal.)


Here’s more from Roll Call on today’s radio interview:

Quote:
 
In response to a caller’s suggestion that Massa disseminate his allegations by contacting Fox News, Massa stated: “I can’t call Fox News. You guys gotta call Fox News. I can’t do it. … Here’s why. I’m in the center of this storm, so obviously I’m not objective.”

But Massa also repeatedly pointed out that the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, commonly referred to as the ethics panel, would continue its investigation if he remains in office.

“That’s very kind of you, but understand what that means for me,” Massa said in a response to a caller who suggested he not resign. “It means that a group of lawyers are going to try to rip me and my family limb from limb. And you’ve already seen it in the newspapers. … It’s a piranha feeding frenzy.”

Massa said on the show that the ethics investigation 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.

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, but after the ethics investigation was confirmed, Massa announced he would step down immediately.


The ethics allegations, according to Massa, don’t amount to much (more below). It is Steny Hoyer’s behavior that Massa finds shocking. From the National Journal:

Quote:
 
Massa slammed House Maj. Leader Steny Hoyer for discussing a House ethics committee inquiry, accusing Hoyer of lying in an effort to eliminate an opponent of health care. Hoyer said last week he heard in early Feb. about allegations against Massa, and that he told Massa’s office to report the allegations to the ethics committee.

“Steny Hoyer has never said a single word to me at all, never, not once,” Massa said. “Never before in the history of the House of Representatives has a sitting leader of the Democratic Party discussed allegations of House investigations publicly, before findings of fact. Ever.”


Here is what Massa says happened with the male aide:

Quote:
 
A complaint before the House ethics committee, he said, stemmed from a wedding Massa attended over New Years, when he made an inappropriate comment to an aide, according to Roll Call, which first reported the radio program.

Massa maintained his comments were inappropriate, but he blamed “political correctness” and accused Dems of a setup. Massa voted against health care legislation in Nov., and he has not been a reliable vote for Dem leadership. That, he said, has put a target on his back. …


Here’s a more detailed description of Massa’s view on the sexual harassment charge, via CNN:

Quote:
 
(CNN) – Embattled Rep. Eric Massa said Sunday that the ethics investigation surrounding him stems from a sexually laced conversation he had at a New Year’s Eve wedding.

The New York Democrat said in his weekly radio show that he wasn’t told about the ethics probe until after he decided to retire and that he first learned the details of the investigation from news reports.

While at a wedding for one of his staff members, Massa said he danced with the bride and bridesmaid as cameras rolled.

“Absolutely nothing occurred,” while he was dancing, he said.

Massa said he then sat with some staff members who were all bachelors. In a conversation fueled by alcohol, one staff member “made an intonation to me that maybe I should be chasing after the bridesmaid,” Massa said.

Massa said he told the staffer beside him, “Well, what I really ought to be doing is fracking you.”

Massa said he “tousled 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,” Massa said.

“Now was that inappropriate of me? Absolutely. Am I guilty? Yes,” he continued.

Massa said the staff member to whom he made the remark never told him he felt uncomfortable. Instead, Massa said, someone else went to another staff member who was uncomfortable for the first staff member. That person in turn went to the House Ethics Committee.

“It was a third-party political correctness statement,” Massa charged, reiterating that his information comes not from the ethics committee, but from what he read in newspapers. …


Update: Roll Call has a transcript of Massa’s description of events at the wedding party.

If Massa’s version of events is true, this is indeed a tempest in a teapot.

For more on Massa’s statements today, check out Memeorandum.com’s collection of news and blog posts.

You can hear the audio of Massa’s interview today — if it’s available. Right now, the site is at capacity.[/quote]
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- Mik, 6/14/08


Nothing is as effective as homeopathy.

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- Klaus, 4/29/18
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Red Rice
HOLY CARP!!!
This just gets more and more sordid interesting. :popcorn:
Civilisation, I vaguely realized then - and subsequent observation has confirmed the view - could not progress that way. It must have a greater guiding principle to survive. To treat it as a carcase off which each man tears as much as he can for himself, is to stand convicted a brute, fit for nothing better than a jungle existence, which is a death-struggle, leading nowhither. I did not believe that was the human destiny, for Man individually was sane and reasonable, only collectively a fool.

I hope the gunner of that Hun two-seater shot him clean, bullet to heart, and that his plane, on fire, fell like a meteor through the sky he loved. Since he had to end, I hope he ended so. But, oh, the waste! The loss!

- Cecil Lewis
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George K
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http://washingtonindependent.com/78652/eric-massa-to-rip-democrat-on-glenn-becks-fox-news-show

Rep. Eric Massa’s (D-N.Y.) scorching attack on Democrats — while a lot of attention is going to a silly story about Rahm Emanuel, he accuses his party of trying to “shove the [health care] bill down our throats” — will be amplified tomorrow with a full-hour interview on Glenn Beck’s Fox News show.

In roughly 12 hours, Massa has changed his narrative from “congressman resigning in disgrace” to angry, Howard Beale-esque truth-teller who’d simply had enough and will take his party to the woodshed. Left unsettled: the incredibly important issue of whether he’ll resign today, as he said he would, or he’ll try to bring down the health care bill by staying in Congress.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Massa voted "no" in November on the bill because it did not go far enough. He is in favor of single-payer.

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2010/0305/Eric-Massa-s-early-exit-from-House-may-ease-healthcare-s-passage
Quote:
 
The freshman congressman voted against the bill when it passed the House in November by the narrow margin of 220 to 215. Mr. Massa was one of 39 Democrats to vote no.

He said he favored a single-payer healthcare system, and felt the House bill did not go far enough to bring down healthcare costs. Massa’s departure will eliminate one of the “no” votes that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi needs to overcome as she seeks support to pass the Senate version of reform.
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- Mik, 6/14/08


Nothing is as effective as homeopathy.

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George K
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Finally
John Hinderacker proposes a thought experiment:
Quote:
 
Imagine that it is 2006; for Eric Massa, substitute the name of any Republican Congressman; for Rahm Emanuel, substitute Karl Rove; and imagine that a Republican Congressman called Rove "the son of the Devil's spawn," while accusing Rove and the Bush White House of conspiring to force him out of Congress--sometimes, while naked--because he opposed the war in Iraq. Do you think that might have made the evening news?
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- Mik, 6/14/08


Nothing is as effective as homeopathy.

I'd rather listen to an hour of Abba than an hour of The Beatles.
- Klaus, 4/29/18
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QuirtEvans
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I Owe It All To John D'Oh
You guys are pretty funny. The story comes up originally, and you're all over it like white on rice. The guy denies it, and you are all convinced that you've got your very own Democratic Larry Craig, and that the guy has no credibility at all. Now, he claims he was forced out by the Obama boys, and suddenly you're convinced he's the most credible guy on the planet ... a hero! I wish you'd make up your minds. Sorry, I forgot, it's more important to switch to the highest profile target you can find at the earliest opportunity.
It would be unwise to underestimate what large groups of ill-informed people acting together can achieve. -- John D'Oh, January 14, 2010.
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George K
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Finally
The guy denied it, and you were the one who agreed with his story that it was his lymphoma that prompted his resignation.
QuirtEvans
 
And if the guy has non-Hodgkins lymphoma, that seems like a pretty good reason to get out.

So, was he lying then, or is he lying now?
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- Mik, 6/14/08


Nothing is as effective as homeopathy.

I'd rather listen to an hour of Abba than an hour of The Beatles.
- Klaus, 4/29/18
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QuirtEvans
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I Owe It All To John D'Oh
George K
Mar 8 2010, 05:46 PM
The guy denied it, and you were the one who agreed with his story that it was his lymphoma that prompted his resignation.
QuirtEvans
 
And if the guy has non-Hodgkins lymphoma, that seems like a pretty good reason to get out.

So, was he lying then, or is he lying now?
BZZZZ! Wrong. I'm sorry, you won't be able to play Double Jeopardy.

I said that lymphoma seemed like a good reason to resign, and that I'd like to wait for the facts to come out first. I rendered no judgment on whether he was guilty of harassment or not. I just said that the facts that were out there, at that point, were pretty thin. In fact, my recollection is that I was fairly explicit that more facts might come out, and that could change my perception.

You're the Search King. Go back and check.

And, instead of trying to play the pot calling the kettle black, why don't you try to explain your own volte face?
It would be unwise to underestimate what large groups of ill-informed people acting together can achieve. -- John D'Oh, January 14, 2010.
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Mikhailoh
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If you want trouble, find yourself a redhead
Now who again was on it 'like white on rice'? Certainly not I.
Once in his life, every man is entitled to fall madly in love with a gorgeous redhead - Lucille Ball
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George K
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Finally
Here's some thicker allegations.

Quote:
 
Massa under investigation for allegedly groping male staffers

Former Rep. Eric Massa (D-N.Y.) has been under investigation for allegations that he groped multiple male staffers working in his office, according to three sources familiar with the probe.

The allegations surrounding the former lawmaker date back at least a year, and involve "a pattern of behavior and physical harassment," according to one source. The new claims of alleged groping contradict statements by Massa, who resigned his office on Monday after it became public that he was the subject of a House ethics committee investigation for possible harassment.

Massa had said that the allegations were limited to his use of "salty language" with his staff. He apologized for making some inappropriate comments and argued he was being unfairly villified. Days later, Massa accused the White House and Democratic congressional leaders of trying to oust him from office to improve their chances of passing health care reform legislation. Massa could not be reached for comment Tuesday, and no one answered the phone at his home in New York or his campaign office. Staff at his former congressional offices declined to relay messages to him and said they did not know how to reach him.

According to two sources familiar with the probe, Massa's former deputy chief of staff Ron Hikel provided the information about the staffers' allegations to the House ethics committee three weeks ago. Hikel had earlier sought advice from Majority Leader Steny Hoyer's office about brewing internal complaints, the sources said, and had been urged to report the allegations to the committee.


So, as I asked, when was he lying?

Oh, and can you show me where I praised Massa?
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"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... "
- Mik, 6/14/08


Nothing is as effective as homeopathy.

I'd rather listen to an hour of Abba than an hour of The Beatles.
- Klaus, 4/29/18
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