Dem Source: Massa Won't Run

Rep. Eric Massa is poised to announce this afternoon that he will not seek re-election in the 29th Congressional District this fall as planned, a Democratic source confirms.

The freshman congressman is going to make his announcement at 3 p.m., according to the source. It's unclear if that event is taking place in the district or in Wahsington, D.C. A call to Massa's spokesman has so far not been returned.

Massa's office says he will be speaking with the press on a "very important" conference call at 3:30 p.m. He's in Washington.

Massa is calling around the district to inform party leaders and supporters of his decision.

The source said he assumed that Massa's move is "health related," but said the congressman also gave him a rather nebulous warning that he would be "hearing things that aren't true."

Sources close to the congressman say there has been talk of an ethics investigation, but a staffer in Massa's district office contacted yesterday insisted he had no knowledge of that.

By Elizabeth Benjamin
March 3, 2010 1:29 PM
New York Daily News

Accused of sexually harrassing male staffer.

Politico

After his trashing of Randy Kuhl? Priceless.

LOL well he lasted long

He was a creep. First there was his faked trip in the fuel cell car. Then there was time he was caught on video telling a lobbyist he would be happy to vote against the interests of his own district. Good riddance.

WHAT I HAVE KNOWN ABOUT ERIC MASSA

During his Navy career, Eric Massa allegedly touched at least two men inappropriately and may have exhibited a pattern of putting himself in situations where he would see men naked – particularly younger and lower-ranked men.

These allegations come from general shipboard understandings and conversations, and were relayed to me by shipmates of Eric Massa.

In one instance... Massa and a lieutenant were on liberty in the Middle East. Massa had made the motel arrangements and the room turned out to have only one bed. The lieutenant reportedly told other officers on the ship that while they were in the room, Massa came up behind him and started massaging his neck and shoulders....he later told shipmates, he was awakened by Massa’s hands in his shorts. The lieutenant was startled and turned away. Massa rolled over and pretended to be asleep....

A few months after this incident, another lieutenant ... had a somewhat similar situation. In the stateroom, Massa had the bottom rack and the lieutenant had the top rack. ... he had awakened to Massa atop him in his bunk.

The lieutenant rebuffed Massa.

Neither lieutenant officially complained about their experiences. In both instances, Massa was their boss ...

Also ....junior officers were troubled by the fact that Massa used their shower – even though it was four decks below his stateroom and he had showering facilities with the other senior officers.

Written March 4, 2010
by Bob Lonsberry © 2010

I always thought Massa was a carpet bagger at best. He targeted an area of the country he thought was vulnerable to allow him get elected in, moved there and then spent nearly five years of trashing Kuhl to do it. If you had ever talked to the man you would never have voted for him. Unbelievable

Glad to see we have yet another outstanding representative for New York.

Outstanding no. Outhanging yeh.

Massa to resign under ethics cloud

WASHINGTON — New York Democratic Rep. Eric Massa, the subject of a harassment complaint by a male staffer, is stepping down from his seat, The Associated Press has learned.

Knowledgable Democratic officials told AP that Massa, who has announced he will not seek reelection due to a recurrance of cancer, is resigning his seat, effective Monday.

Massa's resignation comes as the House ethics panel was reviewing a harassment complaint by a male staffer who reportedly felt uncomfortable in a situation with Massa that had sexual overtones.

Massa, who had initially dismissed the rumors, will resign effective Monday evening, according to three Democratic officials with knowledge of his plans. They spoke on condition of anonymity because no formal announcement had yet been made.

By LAURIE KELLMAN (AP) – 15 minutes ago

he later told shipmates, he was awakened by Massa’s hands in his shorts. The lieutenant was startled and turned away. Massa rolled over and pretended to be asleep....


He was only doing like the old telephone commercials used to tell us to do " Reach out, reach out and touch someone."

Special election awaits 29th

Rep. Eric Massa’s decision to resign Monday rather than retire when his term ends in January will mean a special election.

Massa, D-29 of Corning, made the announcement Friday in the wake of a what he called a cancer scare and a complaint to the Congressional Ethics Committee, reportedly involving the sexual harassment of a male aide. He had announced his retirement Wednesday.

In a statement posted on his Web site Friday, Massa acknowledged using inappropriate language.

Massa to resign Congressional post with ‘a deep apology’
By DAVID TAUBE / dtaube@fltimes.com
Sunday, March 7, 2010 12:11 AM CST

March 8, 2010, 7:14 A.M.
By Jennifer Yachnin
Roll Call Staff


Rep. Eric Massa (D-N.Y.) suggested on a New York radio station Sunday that he could rescind his resignation — scheduled to take effect at 5 p.m. Monday — after asserting that an ethics investigation into allegations that he sexually harassed one of his aides may have been orchestrated by Democratic leaders to get him out of office before the health care vote.


Responding to a caller to his weekly radio show on WKPQ Power 105 FM, a recording of which was made available via the Web site of local station 13 WHAM-TV, Massa said: “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.”


During the hour-and-a-half show, Massa said that Democratic leaders are using the House ethics committee to get him out of office before the vote on health care because he voted against the House health care bill last fall.


“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.


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.

Democratic leaders very clever!!!

They able to get Mr. Massa to sexually harass peoples against his will just to get rid of him!!!

Disgraced ex-Rep. Eric Massa's long trail of bizarre behavior includes home shared with staffers

Disgraced ex-Rep. Eric Massa insists he never sexually abused anyone, but he filled his Capitol Hill rowhouse with low-paid male staffers in an arrangement ripe for trouble.

"It's like he had people trapped," said a Hill source.

Sordid new details emerged yesterday of a pattern of behavior that went back to his 20 years as a naval officer, as ex-shipmates came forward to describe incidents of groping and perhaps worse.

After resigning, Massa called his "inappropriate" behavior a carryover from his Navy days.

At the house on E St. Southeast yesterday, which Massa had shared with five of his staffers, clothes were piled on the floor and half-a-dozen pairs of shoes mingled with dirty towels next to an open pink suitcase in the living room.

In hindsight, Democratic insiders wondered about activities that before had just seemed odd. They said Massa hired a surprisingly large percentage of young gay men, and paid them so little that staffers were forced to live in the house with him.

"It's not the gay part that's a problem, it's the abuse, if it's true," said one Hill source.

"The guy's a freak," a close friend of one embattled Massa aide told the Daily News.

Even as ethics officials apparently decided yesterday to drop their investigation of Massa because he is no longer in Congress, numerous new reports and interviews suggested there is much more to learn about the Navy vet.

Massa departed Congress on Monday after first saying he had cancer, then claiming he wanted to avoid an investigation, then saying he was forced out because he opposed health care reform, and finally saying he wasn't forced out.

He admitted in a pair of bizarre cable interviews that he "tickled" staffers, but he denied charges of repeated groping.

But new bombshells erupted yesterday, the biggest reported by The Atlantic online, which quoted past shipmates of Massa charging he used his status as a commander to subject underlings to abusive sexual advances.

BY James Gordon Meek, Richard Sisk, Kenneth R. Bazinet and Michael Mcauliff In Washington and Rich Schapiro In Corning, N.Y.
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
Thursday, March 11th 2010, 10:54 AM

Massa is only doing to his staffers what all NY politicians have been doing to their constituents. Grab your wallet and bend over.

The guy is a quack. Period.

"He admitted in a pair of bizarre cable interviews that he "tickled" staffers, but he denied charges of repeated groping"

What's wrong with a good ole *tickle party* between men LOL

I did not believe it till I saw it with my own eyes.....Massa admitting to tickleing and groping.....geesh what an idiot....

remember deny deny deny...

I guess the Village People were thinking of Massa when they wrote "In the Navy."

True words spoken from the personal experiances of the master baiter.

I have checked out this site and I see that your products and services are very unique and reliable. I would like to show this site to my friends to check them out as well.
Thanks and I’ll keep an eye of this ...

Staffers' accounts paint more detailed, troubling picture of Massa's office

Just three months after Eric Massa was elected to Congress, his young male employees on Capitol Hill began complaining to supervisors that the lawmaker was making aggressive, sexual overtures toward them, according to new interviews and internal documents.

The senior staff, one of whom said he heard Massa making lewd remarks to young staffers, tried to manage the problem internally. But reports of Massa's inappropriate behavior continued, leaving junior workers feeling helpless, according to victims, other staffers and sources close to an ongoing House ethics investigation. Most asked not to be named due to the ethics probe and the risk of hurting their job prospects.

This account, drawn from more than two dozen interviews and internal documents, shows that aides were accusing the 50-year-old married lawmaker of far more egregious behavior than previously known. Beginning in March 2009 and over the next several months, male staffers complained that their boss had touched them in a sexual manner, came up with reasons to have staffers travel alone with him on overnight trips, and expressed a desire to have sex with the men in the office.

But it wasn't until after a year of staff complaints -- when allegations about Massa's behavior threatened to become a public embarrassment -- that supervisors alerted congressional leaders to the problem. That led House leadership to demand the matter be referred to the ethics committee. Massa resigned a few weeks later when the media reported he was the subject of a harassment probe. He declined to comment for this story.

Several staffers say the Massa episode reveals congressional staff's lack of faith in their workplace protections and the deference that office supervisors showed Massa.

Staff in the D.C. office felt they had nowhere to turn, she said. For months, according to numerous accounts, Massa's aides tolerated a frat house environment full of sex talk and lewd behavior.

In one instance, a staffer said he alerted Joe Racalto, Massa's chief of staff, in March 2009 that Massa tried to fondle a young colleague in a hotel room during the 2008 campaign. Racalto told staffers he believed their complaints, because he had heard similar stories, according to staffers. Two sources said that Racalto told staffers he himself had been a victim of Massa's advances.

In a statement through his lawyer, Racalto declined to answer questions about whether he was harassed by Massa, or had filed a harassment complaint against the lawmaker. He did answer several other questions in comments relayed by his lawyer. He disputed claims that he mishandled the situation but said he had difficulty controlling his boss and lacked a manual to guide him. He said he confronted Massa about allegations of improper advances, but the lawmaker denied doing anything improper.

Racalto said he tried in fall 2009 to block the lawmaker from being alone with young male staffers, including demanding that he move out of a townhouse Massa shared with staff. He confirmed that he pulled Massa out of a Dupont Circle bar in December when he could not get Massa to stop making inappropriate comments to a 21-year-old intern and another male staffer.

Staffers also said they sought help from Ron Hikel, who became deputy chief of staff in November 2009. Hikel said he was prohibited from commenting for this story because of the ongoing ethics investigation.

The House ethics committee is scrutinizing what House Democratic leaders knew when about the harassment allegations, and how they acted on the information.

One gay male staffer said he complained to Racalto in spring 2009 that Massa routinely made sexualized remarks to him. The staffer told Racalto he had grown distressed, because of two incidents he had heard about involving Massa allegedly making unwelcome sexual advances when sharing a hotel room with staffers.

The staffer said that Racalto assured him that Racalto would talk to Massa and put a stop to this kind of conversation. But by summer, according to several sources, Massa's sexual commentary had escalated and some of it was directed at an intern.

In June, Racalto issued a memo, later obtained by The Washington Post, prohibiting staff from social relationships with staff interns, because of the appearance. He warned three staffers who shared a townhouse with Massa that "you must be extra careful who you bring home and how you conduct yourself, especially when EM is present" and not to "put EM in a position where he is sleeping and questionable activities are taking place."

In October, a local New York newspaper article chronicling Massa's life in Capitol Hill highlighted the lawmaker's unusual living arrangement. Racalto said he called a former co-worker then in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office to report remarks Massa had made about the sex life of a female staffer and discuss his concern about Massa living with male staffers.

Racalto said he told the Pelosi aide that he would demand that Massa move out of the townhouse. Within a day, Racalto also sent out a staff memo instructing employees to stop the sexual talk, and report to him when that rule was broken.

In December and January, staff reported, Massa sought to take an intern with him along on two West Coast trips. But Hikel, staffers said, balked at the idea and insisted Racalto stop him. Racalto said he agreed to block the trips.

The incident that eventually lead to Massa's resignation occurred at a funeral reception on Feb. 2 in Hornel, N.Y., for Lance Cpl. Zack Smith. The 19-year-old Marine had died in an explosion in Afghanistan. Massa struck up a conversation with a young bartender serving at the informal wake.

Four days later, a local blogger alerted the congressman's office that someone had posted an anonymous comment on his site accusing Massa of soliciting sex from the bartender, according to an e-mail obtained by The Post.

Racalto said he also received a voicemail message from the bartender asking why Massa wanted to meet him in Buffalo, 85 miles away, for dinner. Racalto said he confronted Massa, and the congressman said he was trying to give the man a law school reference.

Hikel called Hoyer's office about the blog and other allegations of harassment. Three weeks later, Hoyer confirmed to reporters that his office had given Massa's office an ultimatum: Report Massa to the ethics committee within 48 hours or Hoyer would.

By Carol D. Leonnig
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, April 13, 2010; 1:26 PM

Ok, enough. The guy has been driven out of office in disgrace. We have established that he is a shameless, degenerate creep. We also know that he has a wife and young children. Can we give it a rest for their sake?

Former Rep. Eric Massa's Sex Harassment Problems Deepen

House Minority leader John Boehner has asked the ethics committee to investigate how it could be that supervisors did not notify congressional authorities until after more than a year of complaints from staffers.

04/14/2010

It is individuals such as Massa that make gay's appear to be completely perverted individuals. As a gay man, I am not happy with his behavior. If he wants gay relations, then he should have first gotten out of his marriage and then found another adult man that wanted a mutual experience with him.

I also have to say, I really feel bad for his wife and children. I don't feel bad for him. He made his bed, now he has to lay in it.

Ex-aide files sexual harassment lawsuit against Eric Massa


Complaint alleges groping, vulgar talk


By Andrew Miga *The Associated Press * April 13, 2010, 8:15 pm

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WASHINGTON -- A male aide to former Democratic Rep. Eric Massa has filed a sexual harassment complaint alleging Massa regularly groped him, propositioned him and made lewd remarks to him and other staffers.






"There was grabbing people in private areas," said Debra Katz, the staffer's attorney. "The congressman routinely made gestures implying that he wanted oral sex, and made crude propositions requesting oral sex from his employees."


Katz said Tuesday the complaint was filed March 23 on behalf of the staffer, whom she refused to identify, citing confidentiality reasons. The Washington Post first reported the complaint.


Repeated telephone calls to Massa's home in Corning on Tuesday were not answered. Erin Hogan, who staffs Massa's former district office in Pittsford said no one in the office was in touch with Massa or knew how to reach him.


Katz said aggressive sexual overtures by Massa were routine in the freshman lawmaker's congressional office. They began in early 2009 shortly after Massa took office and escalated over time, particularly after Massa had been drinking, she said.


"This was clearly conduct of a sexually predatory nature," Katz said. "It was over a long period of time and just became part of the fabric of this office."


Massa, 50, resigned last month under a sexual harassment cloud, and the House ethics committee is investigating how Democratic leaders handled the allegations. Republicans forced a House vote demanding the probe.


Massa acknowledged in a TV interview that he had groped a staffer, but he described it as tickling, not sexual behavior.


"It doesn't make any difference what my intentions were, it's how it's perceived by the individual who receives that action," Massa said on conservative commentator Glenn Beck's Fox News Channel show. "I'm telling you I was wrong. I was wrong. ... My behavior was wrong. I should have never allowed myself to be as familiar with my staff as I was."


In October 2009, Massa's chief of staff, Joe Racalto, met with staff members in Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office to discuss problems with the lawmaker. Racalto pointed out a negative story about the lawmaker in his hometown newspaper that described Massa's living arrangements on Capitol Hill with staff members. The Massa aide told the speaker's office that he asked the congressman, who is married, to move out. Racalto also discussed Massa's use of strong language and the way he ran his office.

(2 of 2)


Pelosi's office has said there were no harassment allegations discussed in the October meeting between the Massa aide and Pelosi staff members.






Racalto did not respond to a telephone message left for him Tuesday by the AP.


The tipping point came in February when House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., ordered Massa's staff or the congressman to refer a complaint to the House Ethics Committee within 48 hours or he would file it himself. The Massa staffer reported the allegations to the ethics panel.


Hoyer issued his threat after his staff was told of an anonymous accusation in a local blog that Massa solicited sex from a male bartender at a Feb. 2 funeral reception in Hornell for a 19-year-old Marine who died in Afghanistan, according to The Washington Post. The anonymous claim appears to have gained some credibility after Massa acknowledged to his chief of staff that he invited the bartender to dinner in Buffalo for the purpose of a law school reference, the Post story indicated.


Mindful that Republican ethical misconduct was one reason the GOP lost control of the House in the 2006 elections, Republican lawmakers are demanding an accounting of what and when Democratic leaders knew about sexual harassment allegations concerning Massa.


In response to the Post story, House Republican Minority Leader John Boehner issued a statement Tuesday saying, "It is now readily apparent that Congressman Massa's pattern of troubling behavior continued long after Democrats first became aware of his conduct. Speaker Pelosi's staff has acknowledged they knew about problems in Mr. Massa's office back in the fall of 2009. What action, if any, did the speaker and the Democratic leadership take to protect Rep. Massa's subordinates from harassment and abuse?"


Massa, 50, is a 24-year retired Navy commander who served during the 1991 U.S.-Iraq war and later was special assistant to Gen. Wesley Clark during the conflict in Bosnia.

And i agree completely. He should be punished for the sexual harassment of his staff and his arrogant attitude toward it all, but let's show a little compassion for his kids. Obviously, they have enough heartache. Can you imagine these kids having to go to school everyday with these headlines on every newsstand? Oh yes, he made his bed - but his kids did not.

And to be clear, characterizing him as a "degenerate creep" has nothing to do with his being gay. His oily tactics and abuse of power towards those under his authority are unforgivable.

Eric Massa’s top aide files harassment complaint

WASHINGTON — Former Democratic Rep. Eric Massa’s chief of staff has filed a sexual harassment complaint against the 50-year-old New York lawmaker.

Joe Racalto’s attorney Camilla McKinney said Friday the complaint was filed March 23. Such complaints are handled by the Office of Compliance, an independent agency. Citing confidentiality, she declined to offer details of the allegations.

Massa’s attorney did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment.

Another male aide has also filed a complaint alleging Massa regularly groped him, propositioned him and made lewd remarks to him and other staffers

The Associated Press • April 16, 2010, 6:19 pm

Congress secretly paid nearly $100,000 to settle harassment claims against disgraced congressman:

The Congressional Office of Compliance secretly paid close to $100,000 in taxpayer funds to settle sexual harassment claims from at least two young male staffers who worked for disgraced former Congressman Eric Massa, multiple sources with direct knowledge of the matter told ABC News.

The claims were settled after Massa, a Democrat from upstate New York, resigned in 2010 amid a pending ethics investigation into allegations he groped and sexually harassed members of his staff.