Withers: NY rep accused of harassment

[WillParkinson]

New York Democrats are having a lousy week. Gov. David Paterson is hanging on by a thread. Rep. Charles Rangel lost his powerful committee chairmanship due to ethical lapses. Lastly Rep. Eric Massa announced he was not seeking reelection because of health reasons.

The western New York representative does have non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, but he is under investigation by the bipartisan Ethics Committee for allegedly harassing a male staffer–it’s a sexual harassment claim. Massa denies the allegations, which up to this morning have only been confirmed by anonymous sources. Responding to the claims Massa said they were “”a symptom of what’s wrong with this city.”

Well at least there are no pages involved. I know very little about Massa (although I’ve made too many jokes about his last name). According to his biography, he is married with two kids. Until there is more information, there won’t be any wild speculation from me.

All of this is lousy pr for Empire State Democrats, who over the years have gone from scandal to scandal. Check out Politico’s article describing all of the slander and shame plaguing New York Democrats. In any other state this would be sweet nectar for the opposition, but New York Republicans are weak. As in very. I mean like terribly so.

Essentially for New York politics to be less crappy, the Dems need to clean house. Get rid of all the dead, and corrupted wood, and bring in new folk. This won’t happen because the political bosses know no matter the slime, they are not going to face serious consequences come the fall.

http://www.365gay.com/blog/030410-ny-rep-accused-of-harassment/

[TheWraith]

1. Massa addressed this yesterday.

He attributed the "harassment" claim to his habit of using "salty language" around his staff. It's probably something where the language that was common in his Navy career was too rough for some political staffers.