Massa: Orientation Query 'Insults Every Gay American'

Eric Massa, the Democratic New York Congressman who resigned his seat in the House amid allegations that he groped several male staffers, says that he's the target of a plot to pass President Obama's health care plan at any cost--a claim that has made him, according to some media outlets, a darling to the conservative right.

At the Washington Times' Watercooler Blog, Kerry Pickett reported on March 9 that FoxNews host Glenn Beck has said he would have Massa on his program. The blog also cited Republican challenger Tom Reed, who had intended to run against Massa for his Congressional seat, before Massa resigned.

"I think there are a lot of legitimate questions as to what [Massa] is saying," Reed told the media. "We're seeing a transformation of his positions and his explanations of his resignation. I think there is some serious questions that need to be raised. I would say there are some serious inconsistencies in his statements, and I am troubled by what he is saying."

Reed also indicated that Massa's politics troubled him. "All you have to do is look at the former congressman's position on health care as being a single-payer advocate, and I would say that it speaks volumes of his progressive liberal belief system," said Reed. "If you look at his record and you see what he's said print, over and over again, he's a strong believer to government being the solution to all of our problems. [Massa says that w]e need to grow government and, to me, that's completely opposite of what we believe in [as Republicans]."

Meantime, Massa made allegations of his own concerning White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, who Massa claimed berated him in the locker room of a congressional exercise facility. Rahm, Massa told the media, was stark naked when he approached Massa--who was also undressed--and launched into an aggressive confrontation over Massa's refusal to support a version of the federal budget advanced by the president.

Politico reported in a March 8 article that Massa recounted the episode during a radio interview as follows: "I am showering, naked as a jaybird, and here comes Rahm Emanuel, not even with a towel wrapped around his tush, poking his finger in my chest, yelling at me because I wasn't going to vote for the president's budget. Do you know how awkward it is to have a political argument with a naked man?"

Politico reported that Massa had also derided the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, as well as Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, who had acted on claims of Massa's inappropriate conduct. Politico noted that in addition to Glenn Beck, conservative icons Matt Drudger and Rush Limbaugh also championed him.

During his radio interview, Massa claimed that charges about him having groped a male staffer arose from his having made a joking comment and tousled the hair of a staffer during a playful moment at a New Year's Eve wedding reception. "I danced with the bride, and I danced with the bridesmaid. Absolutely nothing occurred," Massa said. "I said goodnight to the bridesmaid. I sat down at the table where my whole staff was--all of them, by the way, bachelors. One of them looked at me and--as they would do after, I don't know, 15 gin and tonics and goodness only knows how many bottles of champagne--a staff member made an intonation to me that maybe I should be chasing after the bridesmaid. His points were clear, and his words were far more colorful than that."

"And I grabbed the staff member sitting next to me, and I said, 'What I really ought to be doing is fracking you,' and then tousled the guy's hair and left, went to my room, because I knew the party was getting to a point where I shouldn't be there," Massa went on. Massa did not indicate whether the staffer in question was Ronald Hikel, the man who approached Hoyer with the claim that Massa had acted inappropriately, or another of the three staffers he is accused of groping.

Massa recalled that before the story hit the media, members of his staff were questioned. "They brought lawyers in," said Massa. "They took my staff members into a room, and they grilled them for 3� to four hours. And the first question that they asked them was, 'Do you think Congressman Massa is gay?' Let me ask you something: So what if I was? ... That's an issue between me and my wife, and trust me, she knows the answer."

Query an "Insult" to Gays

Massa expressed similar sentiments during an appearance on CNN's Larry King Live, when he refused to answer King, who asked point-blank whether the former Congressman were gay. "Well, here's my answer," Massa told King. "I'm not gonna answer that."

Added Massa, "Ask my wife. Ask my friends, Ask the ten thousand men I served with in the Navy."

King responded, "Didn't mean to insult you."

"No, no. Not me," Massa responded. "It insults every gay American. It somehow classifies people. Why would anybody even ask the question in this day and age?"

"Because you said you groped someone," King rejoined. "Who was a male."

"And here you go back to that," Massa said. "And I explained what that was three times. Come on, now. And by the way, you also said you understood that explanation."

"I do. I understand it," King said. "We're just asking to set the record straight." Added King, "I certainly would not offend the gay community."

In the wake of the allegations against Massa, other alleged episodes from the former Congressman's past have surfaced. Blogger Bob Lonsberry, in a March 10 column in which he says that he himself suffered sexual molestation in his childhood by a perpetrator who went on to assault at least one other victim, recounted having heard several years ago from a former Naval shipmate about alleged episodes of inappropriate conduct involving Massa.

Lonsberry wrote that the current media accounts had left him feeling "Guilty because, though I knew almost four years ago of Eric Massa's alleged penchant for sexually assaulting younger and subordinate males, I said nothing about it. Thinking I was doing the better thing, I didn't report what I knew. I didn't stop him. Which makes me partially responsible for his new victims."

Lonsberry said that the former shipmate had claimed that Massa had made advances toward at least two other Naval officers, both of inferior rank. "That was incendiary information and I sought to verify it," Lonsberry wrote. "I was not able to contact the alleged victims. But I did find two more former Navy officers who had served with Massa and remembered hearing about the incidents, though they did not have any first-hand information."

Because the allegations referred to actions that had purportedly taken place fifteen years earlier, and because no formal complaints had been made, Lonsberry declined to publish a story about what he'd heard. "So I was silent about Massa. I argued against his politics, I wrote about a court case he was involved in. But I didn't write about his alleged sexual aggression and abuse.
I considered it from the standpoint of journalism, and I considered it from the standpoint of politics and personal considerations. But I didn't think about future victims." Added Lonsberry, "And unwittingly I protected Massa instead of protecting them. And I knew better."

Those allegations also resurfaced in a March 10 article at The Atlantic. The article said that former Massa shipmate Peter Clarke had claimed that Massa had made suggestive comments while massaging Clarke's friend, Stuart Borsch, when Massa and Borsch shared a hotel room while on leave in the early 1990s. Another source, Borsch's roommate, Ron Moss, also confirmed this.

The article also cited Borsch as saying that on one occasion, in 1990, Massa groped Borsch as he slept in his bunk aboard the ship. "I believe he may have been drinking," Borsch recounted. "I shouted at him and he left. I mentioned the incident to several other officers. I did not officially report it."

Furthermore, the article said, according to Clarke, Massa groped his own roommate, Tom Maxfield, also when Maxfield was sleeping in his bunk. "He wakes up to Massa undoing his pants trying to snorkel him."