White House bullies a Democrat out of office

Rep. Eric Massa is a left-wing kook, but he's a very principled left-wing kook. Massa has caused the White House several splitting headaches during the ObamaCare debate, arguing that the bill isn't progressive enough. Massa ultimately voted against the bill and planned to do so again, until last week when he announced his resignation. He has cancer, but that wasn't the only problem. Apparently the House Ethics Committee was investigating a complaint that Massa had made sexual advances on a male member of his staff. For some reason, House Majority Leader eagerly dispensed this information to the press.

Now we know why.

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."

Massa said he made the sexual comments as a joke while drunk with several staffers at a wedding reception. That hardly rises to the level of resignation. If awkward drunken behavior was a career killer, no one in Washington, DC would have a job, and Ted Kennedy and Chris Dodd would have been exiled to another country. Hoyer made the complaint public to get Massa out of the way, probably at the behest of Rahm Emanuel, whom Massa says hated him. It's the perfect message to other congressmen who are wavering on ObamaCare. Go ahead, vote against our bill. It'd just be a shame if your personal life ended up on the front page of the New York Times, wouldn't it? It's Chicago politics at its most desperate.

Fortunately, it doesn't seem to be working. Nancy Pelosi doesn't have the votes to push ObamaCare through and not a single "no" vote has resolved that they'll switch. Meanwhile, Bart Stupak's pro-life coalition of Democrat no votes is gaining new members. Finally, it seems, Washington has had enough of Obama's thuggery and intimidation.