Weapon of Massa Destruction!

[jimmy olsen]

Hilarious.

Radio interview can be found here.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2010/03/08/dem_massa_blames_resignation_on_vote_against_health_care.html

March 8th, 2010
Weapon of Massa Destruction
Posted by Tom Bevan | Email This | Permalink | Email Author

The White House needs this like it needs a hole in the head. After a brutal week for Democrats that included David Paterson's ongoing implosion in New York and Charlie Rangel (in)voluntarily turning over his gavel due to a string of never-ending ethics problems, Rep. Eric Massa's no-holds barred radio interview yesterday has things picking up right where they left off last Friday - and then some.

For those who want the short version: on Friday Massa resigned after news leaked during the middle of the week that he was "under investigation by the House ethics committee for allegedly sexually harassing a male staffer." On Sunday, Massa took to the airwaves and claimed that he was forced out of Congress by the White House and the Democratic leadership in the House because he was a "no vote" on the pending health care bill.

In the interview, Massa delivered a series of broadsides against Rahm Emanuel, reciting two occasions where the Chief of Staff cursed him out - including once when the two men were standing naked in the locker room of the Congressional gym. Massa called Emanuel the "son of the devil's spawn" and said he would "strap his children to the front end of a steam locomotive" to get a vote passed through Congress.

It's useless to debate whether Massa is right or not. We won't ever know the truth in this he-said, he-said. At the end of the day, what's most harmful to the White House is that Massa's claim reinforces a very damaging narrative: that this Administration is run by a bunch of political thugs who do things "The Chicago Way;" that the White House and Democrats in Congress will do "whatever it takes" to pass this particular piece of health care legislation.

To have Massa ripping his party and the administration in such a public way right as they're in the middle of  trying to woo and cajole enough House Democrats to vote "yes" on the the health care bill is at the very least unhelpful and might possibly turn out to be a disaster.

Since Scott Brown's victory in Massachusetts, the White House has tried mightily to change the optics of the health care debate, to resuscitate the Senate bill, and to provide Nancy Pelosi with enough wiggle room to get it passed by the House. But Massa's Sunday bombshell, which is lighting up the Internet and the cable talk shows, has the public's attention refocused on the unseemly spectacle of the Democrats in Washington trying to jam through their health care bill over the public's objections.

UPDATE: Looks like Massa's scorching of the earth will continue to eat up more critical news cycles: he'll be on Glenn Beck's show t0morrow afternoon and again on Larry King tomorrow night.

[Jaron]

I love this Dumb-o-crat implosion.

[KRonn]

This guys is a riot, a real loose cannon.   

Looks like the Dems are trying to complete their own implosion and melt down. Since the Repubs melted down, I guess the Dems had to race them to the bottom rung, so as not to be outdone by the opposition.   

[grumbler]

I reckon the White House is better off having Massa as an enemy than trying to keep him as a "friend."