Glenn Beck will have an interview with Congressman Massa on his television show tomorrow.
“Rahm Emanuel is son of the devil’s spawn, Rep. Eric Massa (D-NY) 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.”
Rep. Massa describes a confrontation with Emanuel in a 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.”
Rep. Eric Massa, D-N.Y., under investigation for alleged sexual harassment of a male staffer, accused House Democratic leaders of lying about the charges against him and using them to run him out of Congress because he voted against health care reform when it last came before the House.
Roll Call reports this morning that on the local radio show he hosts in his district, Massa said he had not been informed of the sexual harassment allegations before they became public. He claimed that Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., spoke falsely when he said he had brought the matter to him previously, Massa said. “Steny Hoyer has never said a single word to me, at all, ever, not once,” Massa said. “Not a word. This is a lie. It’s a blatant, false statement.”
He also railed against Hoyer for discussing Ethics Committee business with the press. “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.”
Massa, who voted against health care reform in November, accused Democratic leaders of driving him out of office in the cause of passing health care reform. “With the departure of Congressman Neil Abercrombie (D), who is running for the governorship of Hawaii, and with the tragic and very sad passing of my personal friend Jack Murtha (D-Pa.), 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.”
The comment that landed Massa in hot water, he claimed, was a sexual proposition he made in jest at a table full of drunken male staffers at a wedding reception on New Year’s Eve. He also said that the complainant was not the man he allegedly harassed, but an offended third party who witnessed the incident.
“This is what Congress has come to,” an angry Massa said. “The government is not our enemy, but it is broken beyond repair.”
Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/Massa-accuses-Dem-leaders-of-railroading-him-because-he-voted-against-ObamaCare-86840467.html#ixzz0hdoGmebt
Senior advisers for Sen. Harry Reid say he won’t resign as majority leader over comments he made about Barack Obama — and that Republican attacks on Reid will give them the opportunity to solidify Democrat support by arguing that he’s the victim of a partisan witchhunt.
“The more you have in terms of criticism from Republicans, the more likely it is that it is just a political pile-on,” a senior Reid adviser told POLITICO Sunday.
The calculus could always change if more revelations emerge or if Democrats begin to call for Reid to step down. But Reid’s advisers expect neither of those situations to play out, believing that support has been solidified on the left and that they can weather the storm in Washington – and will have to turn the focus in his Nevada reelection campaign to jobs and the economy.
Republicans attacked Reid in force Sunday, with RNC Chairman Michael Steele, who is black, National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman John Cornyn (R-Tex.) and Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) all calling on Reid to step down and comparing his remarks to those that led to the downfall of Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) in 2002.
It’s a mark of how bad the race comments are for Harry Reid — recalling, in topic area and tonedeafness, if not substance, his predecessor Trent Lott’s fatal gaffe — that they’ve drawn a formal statement from the president, blasted out to the press:
Harry Reid called me today and apologized for an unfortunate comment reported today. I accepted Harry’s apology without question because I’ve known him for years, I’ve seen the passionate leadership he’s shown on issues of social justice and I know what’s in his heart. As far as I am concerned, the book is closed.
Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) in 2002 agreed with former Sen. Trent Lott’s (R-Miss.) decision to resign his leadership role after Lott made what some felt were racist remarks at former Sen. Strom Thurmond’s 100th birthday party.
“He had no alternative,” said Reid at the time claiming, “If you tell ethnic jokes in the backroom, it’s that much easier to say ethnic things publicly. I’ve always practiced how I play.”
As liberal media members work overtime to spin racist comments Reid made about presidential candidate Barack Obama in 2008, it’s going to be very interesting to see how many recall Lott’s resignation or what Reid said about the incident.
Harry Reid’s comments about Barack Obama as a “light-skinned” African-American with “no Negro dialect” are hardly the first to land him in hot water.
The Senate majority leader has a habit of speaking his mind, which can be a dangerous thing for a politician — especially for one who tends to say what he means in the bluntest way possible.
Some other memorable moments the Nevada Democrat might like to forget.
1. On the Iraq war: “This war is lost.” (April 2007)
The fallout: At the time, Reid’s comment reflected a consensus on the leftover violence in Iraq: that the United States had lost the war. With the gradual drawdown of troops and the decrease in U.S. casualties in the past two years, Reid probably wouldn’t make that comment today.
2. On Alan Greenspan: “One of the biggest political hacks we have in Washington.” (March 2005)
The fallout: At the time, Greenspan was still considered a master of the economy, and Republicans seized on Reid’s comments. But the nation’s economic woes have made the Greenspan era a little less golden in hindsight, so Reid’s comments may withstand the test of time.
3. On the death of Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.): “I think it’s going to help us.” (August 2009)
The fallout: Reid was saying what many Democrats were thinking: Kennedy’s death will inspire Democrats to finish the job on health care. But the phrasing was inartful, opening the door to Republicans who were eager to accuse Democrats of politicizing Kennedy’s death.
4. “You know, Joe, I can’t stand John McCain.” (August 2008)
The fallout: Hard to get past that one now that McCain is back in the Senate, but it would have been harder still if he’d made it to the White House.
5. On President George W. Bush: “I think this guy is a loser.” (May 2005)
The fallout: Reminded later that he’d called the president a “loser,” Reid volunteered that he’d also called him “a liar.” He also noted that he’d apologized for the first line — but not for the second.
6. On Capitol tourists: “You can always tell when it is summertime because you can smell the visitors. The visitors stand out in the high humidity, heat, and they sweat.” (December 2008)
The fallout: If Democrats were hoping to ditch the “Washington elitist” tag, this probably didn’t help.
7. To a Las Vegas Review-Journal executive: “I hope you go out of business.” (August 2009)
The fallout: The Review-Journal blasted him, of course. And given the state of the newspaper industry — and the high unemployment rate in Las Vegas — this wasn’t received very well by the locals. Reid’s office said he was just joking. “Sometimes, my humor doesn’t go over well,” Reid told POLITICO later.
Democratic Rep. Parker Griffith announced Tuesday that he’s switching parties – saying he can no longer align himself “with a party that continues to pursue legislation that is bad for our country, hurts our economy and drives us further and further into debt.”
“Unfortunately there are those in the Democratic Leadership that continue to push an agenda focused on massive new spending, tax increases, bailouts and a health care bill that is bad for our healthcare system,” Griffith said in a statement. “I have always considered myself to be an independent voice and I have tried to be that voice in Congress – but after watching this agenda firsthand I now believe that the differences in the two parties could not be more clear and that for me to be true to my core beliefs and values I must align myself with the Republican party and speak out clearly on these issues.
Senator Joe Lieberman has caved on the Democrat’s Health Care Reform Bill.
Fox News reports the following:
Sen. Joe Lieberman, who has sent Democratic leaders and the White House scrambling in recent days to find a compromise that would win his support for legislation overhauling the U.S. health care system, signaled Tuesday that their efforts have nearly succeeded.
“I’m getting to a position where I can say what I wanted to say all along: that I’m ready to vote for health care reform,” the independent from Connecticut told reporters Tuesday.
Lieberman had threatened to join Republicans in throwing the legislation off the tracks if Democrats included a proposal to expand Medicare — a compromise that would have replaced a government-run insurance program that liberals have long sought.
President Obama has invited all Senate Democrats to the White House for a meeting Tuesday afternoon in an effort to unite his fragmented party around his signature initiative.
Obama needs every one of them to hang together to give him the 60 votes required to overcome Republicans united in opposition to the sweeping health overhaul measure.
“I think we’re headed in the right direction,” Lieberman said. “My whole point has been here, the president laid out a couple of big goals for this process. Bend the cost curve down for individuals, families, businesses, our government, our economy and health care.
“Secondly, bring in a lot of people who can’t afford health insurance now. The basic core bill does that.”
Lieberman’s statement followed a closed-door senators-only meeting of the Democratic caucus called to consider trade-offs necessary to assure 60 votes for the bill. Medicare is the government program providing health care benefits to the elderly.
Liberals behave as if there is a rule that states: “If you did not question your government when Republicans were in charge, you are not allowed to question it while the Democrats are in charge.”
Huh?
That is typical liberal logic. Informed citizens will typically have questions about any government. A healthy skepticism toward government has kept us free for for over 230 years.
Conservatives generally, had many concerns during the Bush administration and perhaps even more concern was warranted. But to call what informed Americans are feeling towards the Obama Administration’s policies “concerns” would be akin to referring to Hurricane Katrina as an inconvenience.
Candidate sworn-in even though election was contested.
he New York State Board of Elections was unable to present a “clear decision” to the House of Representatives in the NY-23 Congressional Special Election. John Conklin, Communications Director for the Board of Elections, said that the board could not even have declared an unofficial winner in the race had Doug Hoffman not conceded on Election Night.
The letter that was sent to the Clerk of the House of Representatives by the Board of Elections and entered into House record on Nov. 6th shows that only 3,026 votes separated the candidates according to the unofficial results submitted. Rep. Charles B. Rangel, as the most senior member of New York’s Congressional Delegation, put forth Bill Owens for swearing-in to the 111th Congress. In doing so, he indicated that “His Certificate of Election has not arrived, but there is no contest, and no question has been raised with regard to his election.”
This statement, however, was not entirely true. Representatives for Bill Owens’ campaign had contested the election results on November 2nd, 2009 and ordered the vote impounded according to officials.
The move, regardless of Owens’ standing with respect to the results, was a clear indicator to the Board of Elections that the election result was contested. The votes were impounded and the official result delayed until sometime in mid-December when the final counts will be certified.
The Clerk of the House of Representatives requested results of the election from the NYS Board of Elections. The NY Board of Elections could not release those results while the vote was impounded but after Mr. Hoffman’s concession of the election, based on erroneous information Hoffman had received with regard to the vote count, the Owens’ Campaign released their impound order. This put the Board of Elections in a position where they could report the vote count to the Clerk of the House, although they emphasized that the results were unofficial and that they could not certify the result.
Without a clear winner in the election and with considerably more outstanding absentee ballots than the spread between the candidates, the NY Board could not and did not certify the result of the election. The House, however, moved forward with the induction of its newest member regardless. They did so, presumably on the order of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi who had declared on the previous day that “Tuesday night, we won two more votes for health care.” with apparent disregard for the fact that the election is not over yet.
The New York State Board of Elections was unable to prevent this action, indicating that the House of Representatives is the sole arbiter of who may join their ranks. The question remains though, did the House act too soon?
…
Despite the fact that Bill Owens has already been sworn-in and has voted on crucial legislation in the House of Representatives, he may not have actually won the NY-23 Congressional Special Election.
Several errors were made during the initial vote counts. Over 2,000 votes for contender Doug Hoffman were not counted in the preliminary results, narrowing the current vote gap to less than 3,000 votes between Democrat Bill Owens and Conservative Doug Hoffman.
The errors were discovered during the standard vote recanvas that has been underway since November 4th. The largest error occurred in Oswego County where the vote recanvas found a discrepancy of more than 1,200 votes in Doug Hoffman’s favor. Another error, in Jefferson County contributed an additional 700 votes in Hoffman’s favor during the recount.
The election was close enough even on election night that the New York State Board of Elections was unable to present a “clear decision” in the race according to John Conklin, Communications Director for the department. He said that the Board sent a letter to the Clerk of the House of Representatives in Washington indicating that they could not yet determine a winner and could therefore not certify the election until after the recanvas and absentee ballot count. Those final numbers will not be available until at least mid-December.
Nancy Pelosi was only able to legally swear-in Bill Owens because Doug Hoffman had conceded the election, indicating that he did not contest the initial, and now shown erroneous, results, something he may not have done if he had been aware of how close the election was.
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