Deep Mockery.
The Eric Massa scandal now includes the deep irony that Eliot Spitzer approved of Massa in the 2008 ad for the campaign on the basis of cutting taxes and making New York safer for families. Spitzer has already gone through his dark night of the soul, and now Massa enters the ordeal as a fresh candidate of self-destruction. I do not regard Massa as a victim, rather a fool to be helped and left in peace. What is not acceptable is that Massa continue his conduct of denial and disrespect in Congress where he is now faced with a vote for the turning point of Obamacare. "Count every vote" is a partisan rallying point. At the least, the allegations against Massa, now confirmed by no less biased a source than Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, who mentioned "Mark Foley" in public remarks, move the story to loud noise, distraction and public mockery. Next stop, screaming on the House floor.
Whip the House.
Massa was a "No" vote last year for the House vote on healthcare (of 39 "No" votes in the Democratic caucus) -- not because Massa was against massive healthcare reform but because he said at the time he was for a vastly more aggressive single-payer system. Massa's 29th CD is the most Republican district in NY. Massa's victory over Republican Kuhl was by fewer than one thousand votes. It is extremely unlikely that the Democrats will hold the seat in the event of a special election between now and November. Massa's vote for Obamacare moves to the center of the storm. Is it respectful of the Congress to engineer the reconciliation process with a rotten vote from the 29th New York? What is to be done? Massa can save himself and his family asap by leaving the House, resigning his seat and seeking help, rather than staying in Washington and suffering public ridicule and what will likely be a bloody campaign. The GOP will not be silent while the ethics probe continues. The allegations are familiar and unmanageable. Steny Hoyer is in March Madness with Massa and must now balance credibility with the POTUS mission to win by the Easter bunny.
There is no respectability left in this Congress. There is no one who levels with the American people who elect its members. There is only the corrupt Right and the corrupt Left who work in tandem to pass the baton of corruption between them. The few unaligned voices in the middle are systematically drowned out. Reason has been deemed the flattened carcass of a skunk in the middle of the road.
With each turn of the screw by the executive branch it gets uglier. The modesty wraps of the sausage factory peel back exposing the scam. Obama is exhorting the legislative chambers to implode. The American people have awoken from their torpor. They are aware that our system of representative governance is broken; that our country hasn't been governed effectively in years. The best that can happen now is that no further legislation be passed - not until the people have had a chance to clean house.
Obama, on the other hand, knows exactly what he’s doing. He has assigned Congress an impossible task. He has given them a gun and is inviting them to pull the trigger. This would leave only himself in tact – with unlimited power.
Every Washington second-tier politician knows that the curtain has slipped. ("Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.") They are collectively fighting for their lives. Some know what's coming. Some have already left the sinking ship. It is not altogether clear that the American rank and file will know what to do; or that they’ll even be given a chance to do it. They are at a severe disadvantage. All the major institutions - the media, academe, organized labor, Hollywood - are against them. The world has turned against them. They know the way to go with Sisyphus' stone is up. But every foothold has been ground down.
After the Congress has been replaced by a rubberstamp politburo, it will be the military’s turn to be replaced. Then the dollar. I might have the exact order of events wrong. But, either way, all these things are being meticulously planned for. It is the fulfillment of a dream that every Trotskyite has had since the fall of the Soviet Union. They feel they can get there now that Obama is in office. It’ll be interesting to see what they can do to muck up our elections. But in the end, it won’t really matter – will it? With Congress broken, with the economy broken, with a Marxist occupying the White House, it’s hard to see how they could fail.
http://peterkoelliker.blogspot.com/
Despite, the high profile Massa and Rangel scandals, MSNBC's Rachel Maddows is attempting to do a hachet job on Bart Stupak. While he might be a Democrat, his stance on abortion has rubbed Maddows the wrong way. Has MSNBC no shame. They deserve the same fate as Air America which was evidently not too big to fail.
I drove through that district about 11 years ago to get a Nascar Race at Watkins Glen (Bud at the Glen?) Barefoot Children stood along the road holding signs asking us to Honk if we liked Dale Earnhardt. It was not until then I realized how powerful the Nascar Brand is, and the worship of a Race car driver was like that of a Baseball player. I've seen similar behavior in South Carolina, not in the Southern Tier of NYS.
Upstate NY is very poor, very hilly like West Virginia, and has G-d awful winters with lake effect snow. Little industry or tourism, more just a place to pass through.
NY 29 will not tolerate sexual harassment of a staffer.
I assume a special election will be held like NY 23, will the Dead Governor Walking appoint an interim Representative?
Guilty until proven innocent, all of you?! Needs to get "help"? That sure assumes a lot doesn't it? That he's really a closet homosexual who needs to come to grips with his true self? Or that he needs help learning to not make comments deemed inappropriate by today's neo-Nazi political left? Let me give you my take on this. The male staffer that Massa supposedly harrassed is either gay or he's not. If he is gay, then he would have accepted Massa's advances because gay men are not known for their selectivity or restraint. If he is straight (more likely) he would have quit the job and still be running 30 miles an hour 180 degrees away from Massa's office. Real men don't do "harrassment". What's this world coming to, really? Sexual "harrassment" was invited by women, FOR women. One man does not sexually harrass another, at least more than once. It stops dead in its tracks after the first time. Only a woman is self-important and insecure enough to sit around trying to decide whether she's enjoyed the flattery long enough and is starting to feel threatened enough to complain about it. Men wouldn't wait that long, AND men wouldn't want other men to know about it. I would never, ever rat male boss out if he made a pass at me. I'd say, you do that one more time and they'll never find your f___ing remains.
Invented by women, that should be.