OK. I've been driving the pick-up to work and back, and it doesn't have a radio, so I haven't heard much news or commentary lately. I've been busy doing other things lately, so I haven't been reading blogs, other than Lone Ranger's and Trader Rick's (They both usually compose fairly short pieces and don't take much time to read. Besides, they're usually funny) The preceding post here at Casting Pearls was written after reading an article in the local Fredericksburg, VA newspaper that I found in the lunch room where I work.
So, it was few days after the news came out about Democratic Congressman Eric Massa's scandal provoked resignation from the House of Representatives that I finally heard about it, and then it was only second hand news gleaned from commentators Glenn Beck and Michelle Malkin.
Glenn and Michelle, I gathered, had somewhat of a disagreement over Massa's credibility.
From what I understand, Beck provided Massa a bully pulpit from which he proceeded to eviscerate Obama, Rahm Emanuel, Nancy Pelosi and other fellow Democrats over Obama's Health care scam, along with accusations of being forced out of office by Obama and Emanuel's Chicago style thug tactics.
I may not have that completely correct, but that is how I understand the details I've heard so far.
I traveled over to Michelle Malkin's place today to search for her article on the subject and found these words, among others:
Don’t trust Democrat Rep. Eric Massa any further than you can throw him.
He’s been a progressive zealot and political opportunist his entire career. He’s claimed conspiracy before, is intimately bonded with the nutroots, and climbed the political ladder with backing from the odious, anti-war-hoaxer-embracing Gen. Wesley Clark. What Massa dismissively calls his “salty old sailor” talk should raise bright red flags about possible longstanding predatory behavior.
Creep factor: 10...
...He’s a sick, desperate pol looking to save his hide and distract from his smelly ethics problems and personal problems. This is not a hero, not a bona fide champion of reform and integrity in government. He’s the jerk who gave the figurative middle finger to his own constituents as he proclaimed last year that he would ram single-payer down their throats no matter what they thought
Usually, I like and agree with whatever Michelle Malkin writes, but this time, I think there are some points she has failed to consider:
Point number 1. How often do the Democrats resign, or force other Democrats to resign because of some sex scandal? For that matter, any kind of scandal?
We know Republicans will resign at the mere suggestion of impropriety or malfeasance in office, whether any actually exists or not.
But Democrats? This is the first time I've heard of a Democrat Congressman going down so easily without a fight.
Look at Barney Frank as your first, but hardly last example. He's the poster boy for sexual scandals and he's still serving (I use the word "serving" for lack of a more appropriate word). Look at William Jefferson. Look at Edward Kennedy. Look at Charlie Rangel.
Keep looking. Scandal after scandal after scandal after scandal in the Democratic party. And yet, again and again they stay there and continue serving.
I can only think of one Republican lawmaker (Larry Craig) at this writing who refused to resign after being accused of a scandal.
The term, "Sex scandal" and the title, "Democrat" has been nearly synonymous in this age of the Kennedy dynasty.
So why is a sex scandal enough to force Massa to resign, unless there is an ulterior motive? Why is Eric Massa suddenly singled out for membership in the Congressional Hall of Shame?
May I offer my opinion?
I tend to think this time, and possibly, for the first time in his life, he's telling the truth. He was forced to resign to make room for a Democrat Congressperson who will support Obama's health care scam.
Let's examine his motives, both before and after the so-called scandal, shall we?
As Ms. Malkin accurately points out, Massa has been the consummate Liberal Democrat throughout his years in the House.
What did she say?
Oh, yes, here it is:
"He’s been a progressive zealot and political opportunist his entire career. He’s claimed conspiracy before, is intimately bonded with the nutroots, and climbed the political ladder with backing from the odious, anti-war-hoaxer-embracing Gen. Wesley Clark."
Yep. Yep. Yep. And yep.
What were his motives then?
Getting elected and re-elected. Pandering to his Liberal base. Ingratiating himself and endearing himself to his better known, more powerful peers in the Democratic party. Doing what is expected from Liberal Democrats. Mounting successful campaigns, as determined by his Liberal constituency in focus groups and polls.
In short, doing and saying whatever he believes is necessary to appease his constituency.
But, suddenly, Massa is revealed to have "groped" a male staffer, and subsequently resigns---on the heels of his announcement that (gasp)he will not back Obama's health care scam.
Coincidence?
Heh, heh, heh.
Again, let's look at what else Michelle had to say about this rather curious turn of unfortunate events:
"Look, I’m as happy as anyone to see Rahmbo and the Chicago Way slammed so openly by another Democrat. Naked shower fights? Blue-on-blue catfights?Yep again.
Yep, it confirms everything I’ve been writing about the Obama Culture of Corruption the last two years."
Michelle believes what Massa said about underhanded Chicago style thug tactics. She has to. She's been "writing about the Obama culture of Corruption the last two years".
Then she writes, "He’s (Massa)a sick, desperate pol looking to save his hide and distract from his smelly ethics problems and personal problems."
Yep again, and this leads us to point number 2:
Uh, no, Michelle. He isn't. He is an ex pol who no longer has a motive to lie. He is no longer a Congressman. Now, he can feel free to be truthful.
He has nothing left to lose.
He's already lost his hide. His smelly ethics problems and personal problems are already well known and documented.
Now, as I see it, his only motive is to take down those who ruined his career with him.
He did simply what he has been doing throughout his political career: Listening and pandering to his base.
Except, this time, his base expressed their displeasure with Obama's ambitious plans to enslave every American with the heaviest tax burden in history.
This time, Eric Massa decided to vote the way his constituents wanted.
And he was disgraced and humiliated by his own party for his efforts.
Yes, Michelle, don't trust him. But, don't dismiss him, either.
24 comments:
I just can't get past the delicious irony of a white democrat named "Massa."
Ya, the Massa thing strikes me funny every single time I hear it!
We rented a cottage/house on a lake in Windermere, FLA and the neighbors were in the BIG HOUSE and rented the cottage and boat house to us...we became great friends with them and I always called them MASSA! :-)
Anyway...I digress.
Mark, I just do NOT see your problem with what Malkin wrote or Beck did...you make it sound at my blog that I differ with you and I don't...I was only saying the media's STUPID again when they call Beck 'FELLED' at Massa's performance...it didn't FELL him as much as it DISGUSTED HIM.
Massa is a Dem and he's sleaze and he's protecting himself and exposing other Dem sleaze...end of story, right?
I don't get that you seem to see a contradiction between Malkin, Beck, me, etc. (not that I"m on a par with those two :))
Zee, I see no contradiction between you and I. But I think Michelle Malkin is too willing to dismiss Massa as a liar without considering his motivation.
Now that I've seen the interview, it seems to me that perhaps the reason Massa failed to offer any additional information of any importance is that he is being threatened by Obama's thug police to keep his mouth shut. Massa's sweet wife Beck alluded to, or his kids could be in real danger. I do not put it past Obama and his thugs to do anything to further Obama's agenda.
Mark, I don't know what to believe in this scandal. Massa says he couldn't support Obama's health care, but both Obama and Massa were all for a single payer health care system that would be controlled entirely by the government. So what couldn't Massa support?
As far as Massa claiming that there was nothing sexual about his 'tickle-me-Elmo' fests with his male staff members, I'm sorry, I don't buy that either. Today, I heard that there are reports coming out from some of the sailors he served with in the navy, who claimed that Massa groped them.
I think there is a lot more to this scandal then we are being led to believe.
Archbishop, Massa supports a single payer health system, but he doesn't support the more recent versions of Obamacare.
He's still a lib, but he doesn't like the watered down version of the bill now in front of the house.
By the way, what's a transistor radio cost these days, 25-cents?
It took me a minute to understand what you're talking about, LR, but I understand now, and I get it. I used to carry a portable radio and CD player around with me in the truck to listen to, but there are few radio stations that come in clearly in this area, and then only in certain "hot spots". I sometimes played CD's when I couldn't get a radio station, but the batteries run down too quick, so I just go without anything now.
I also considered buying a car stereo system, but a car stereo in an '86 Toyota pick-up is like lipstick on a pig.
We know Republicans will resign at the mere suggestion of impropriety or malfeasance in office
Senator Enzi hasn't resigned as far as I know.
He's the poster boy for sexual scandals
Yeah? Which sexual scandals would those be?
I can only think of one Republican lawmaker (Larry Craig) at this writing who refused to resign after being accused of a scandal.
See Enzi above.
Jim writes, as if he doesn't know, "Yeah? Which sexual scandals would those be?
Jim, I was referring to Frank's little homosexual house of prostitution that he and his boyfriend once ran out of his Washington DC apartment. I don't believe there is a finer example of debauchery, hedonism, and lawless conduct by a US Representative ever.
Instead of continuing to serve in the House of Representatives, he should be in prison.
About Senator Enzi: Until you brought up Senator Enzi, I had never heard of the man, but I looked him up on Google. Funny, Google never heard of any scandals at all associated with him, especially not sexual scandals.
Wikipedia, a usually Liberal slanted website, doesn't even mention any scandals related to Senator Enzi, so your obscure reference to him doesn't seem to apply. What about Enzi? Do you know something about him no one else does?
I invited you once before Mark - along with Marshall Art and Eric Ashley, both of whom, along with Bubba, answered the invitation. I have posted another, entitled "Once Again - Another Open Invitation". The rules, as with previous ones, are you will be allowed to offer your views, without fear of argument or and opposition. I am interested in a specific response to a specific question (or, as in this case, testimony).
Oh, and for what it's worth, Massa's a creep and needs to be out of office.
Mea culpa, mea culpa. Typing before checking.
I meant Senator John Ensign.
I was referring to Frank's little homosexual house of prostitution that he and his boyfriend once ran out of his Washington DC apartment.
Thanks for the smear. No evidence has ever been shown that Frank knew anything about what is roommate was doing. Instead, the ethics committee recommended he be reprimanded for attempting to fix his roommates parking tickets.
Major scandal.
"No evidence has ever been shown that Frank knew anything about what is roommate was doing. Instead, the ethics committee recommended he be reprimanded for attempting to fix his roommates parking tickets."
Nice try, Jim. But you and I and the rest of America know he is a corrupt Politician.
Having the House of Representatives ethics committee investigate a representative's ethical behavior is like letting the fox guard the henhouse.
But I really like this response:
"No evidence has ever been shown that Frank knew anything about what is roommate was doing."
Come on, Jim, even I give you credit for having more common sense than that. Do you really expect reasonable people to believe Barney Frank was completely unaware that homosexual prostitutes and their johns were parading in and out of his apartment at all hours? Or, do you really believe he watched gay men coming in and leaving every hour or so and didn't even consider something was amiss? Do you really think he was that naive?
If he's that stupid and unaware, it's more proof that he doesn't belong in the House of Representatives.
And, if you really believe he didn't know about it, you are even more stupid and unaware than he.
Geoffrey, I have no interest in commenting on your blasphemous blog. In reality, I don't believe in casting my pearls before swine.
Do you really expect reasonable people to believe Barney Frank was completely unaware that homosexual prostitutes and their johns were parading in and out of his apartment at all hours? Or, do you really believe he watched gay men coming in and leaving every hour or so and didn't even consider something was amiss?
I don't need to believe it or not. Why would I? There is no evidence that he did. He said he didn't. You have the videos? Anyone could conduct a prostitution operation out of an apartment or a church without a roommate or the minister knowing. All you'd need is a telephone. Is there anything on any record that anything was actually going on in the apartment itself?
You can fantasize all you want. It doesn't make it so.
Mark,
You ask why would Massa lie now that he's not in office. I think it isn't out of the question for a public figure to desire to maintain a legacy with which he can be proud. To have something untoward on one's record, even for a-holes, is something they wish to avoid. They'll fight against anything that conflicts with an image they do not want. Others, like the many Dems to which you refer, simply pretend that the wrong they committed isn't really wrong except to uptight, busybody, fussbudget, conservative fundamentalists like, well, anyone who knows right from wrong.
Jim, "You can fantasize all you want. It doesn't make it so."
Exactly. Pretending Frank, who has no morals, would suddenly have morals is fantasy. Thanks for making my point.
Art, you are too kind. The problem is, Dems consider "something untoward" on their record as a positive. Sex scandals, in particular, are badges of honor that Liberals wear with pride. Look at Bill Clinton, who the Liberals deify. How often have you heard the Dems ignore the fact that Clinton committed perjury and insist that he was being persecuted just because he got a blowjob? To them, having oral sex with a woman who is not his wife is something of which to be proud.
Uh, that's why they call them Liberals... they are very liberal with their immorality.
How often have you heard the Dems ignore the fact that Clinton committed perjury and insist that he was being persecuted just because he got a blowjob?
Yeah, this is how the right spins it, alright.
The fact is, the dems were and always will be furious with Bill Clinton for not being able to keep is dick in his pants. The fact is also that dems understand that perjury is not a good thing, but they also understand that this case of perjury was a deliberate perjury trap engineered by Lucianne Goldberg and Ken Starr because they could make nothing out of White Water, "file gate", or Vince Foster's death. It was a deliberate attempt to sink the Clinton presidency.
Dems don't "deify" Clinton. He is an effective politician and world leader still even while dems recognize his failings and what might have been accomplished in his second term without the engineered distractions.
Eric Massa is a typical lying liberal. Michelle Malkin is perfectly correct when she says he is a lying sack of shit, not to be believed at all. That said, you ponder as to why he would lie right now, under what appears to be his Waterloo. What are his motivations?
That's as easy one. He is a piece of shit human being, and now that he is going down in flames, he is trying to take as many of these cohorts that forced him out as he can with him.
It's a no-brainer to assume that half of what he said is lies, and the other half accidentally is the truth. He is really unconcerned with the percentage of lies to truth, whatever will get the job done to exact his petty revenge.
Fredd, yeah, that's what I said.
You didn't read the whole post, did you?
It's ok. It was rather long.
But consider this:
What Massa is saying now fits perfectly with the perception Conservatives already have of Obama, Reid, Pelosi, et al, and I have little doubt that our perception is pretty damn close to the truth.
He is much more believable now than he was before he resigned.
Just because he lies, it doesn't mean he is incapable of telling the truth.
Jim, if you're going to willfully lie and pretend to ignore the obvious we can never have an honest discussion.
Statements like The Dems will always be furious with Clinton or that he is an effective world leader or Dems don't deify Clinton are naive at best and lies at worst.
You claim you read the Huffington Post, the daily Kos, and Democratic Underground etc, and yet you pretend Dems never said acted in the manner I said they did proves one of two things:
Either you don't read those blogs or you're lying. In both cases you look like a liar.
If you can't be honest in a discussion, there is no point in discussing.
Yeah, Mark, you busted me. I read about half, skimmed the other half, guilty as charged, as this was indeed a meaty (read: verbose)post.
But since he lies, and we all know he lies, it doesn't matter whether he has the capability to tell the truth or not: we will never know what to believe from people such as this, and accordingly, you can't believe anything they say at any time -even though it may be the truth at that moment in time.
I've always believed, and have actually said to people face-to-face, that if they lie to me once, then they are obligated to give me a list of the things they lie about and the things they tell the truth about so I will know the difference. And then I ask them how I will know their list is the truth.
One who tells a lie is a liar. There is no other definition for them and Massa is one.
I, for one, will consider what he tells me a lie, even if it is true.
Jim, if you're going to willfully lie and pretend to ignore the obvious we can never have an honest discussion.
What a joke! There are no "discussions" here, much less honest ones. You consistently make it clear: There's your way or the highway. Because your answer to anybody who disagrees with you is, "You're a liar."
Statements like The Dems will always be furious with Clinton or that he is an effective world leader or Dems don't deify Clinton are naive at best and lies at worst.
Or none of the above. Most dems have the ability to respect some aspects of a person's life or career and vehemently dislike others. I suppose repugs can't. I thought Bush was great at rallying the country in the aftermath of the 911 attacks. He was an effective leader in those days. When his favorable ratings were around 25%, not so much. I also admire him for turning his substance abuse (alcohol or whatever) problems around and finding Jesus. I wasn't a fan of his style or his ideology.
I really believe you are an expert on what people say on DailyKos and the other blogs. NOT. If you can find anyone there who prays to Clinton or thinks he has never done anything wrong, knock yourself out.
Post a Comment