Another Dem Politician in Hot Water … Eric Massa to Retire, Health or Sexual Harassment?

RUT-ROH, more headaches for Democrats is Washington.

It’s a he said, he said situation for Democrat Representative Eric Massa. It was reported that Massa is retiring due to sexual harassment allegations made by a male staffer. According to the Politico, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) confirmed that they knew about the allegations prior to the story going public.

But several House aides told POLITICO that the House ethics committee has been informed of allegations that the New York Democrat, who is married with two children, made unwanted advances toward a junior male staffer.

A more senior staffer — Ronald Hikel, Massa’s former deputy chief of staff and legislative director — took the complaints to the ethics committee and was interviewed about them twice.

Hikel declined to comment about the situation, but House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) confirmed that the Democratic leadership had been informed of the allegations before the news broke.

US Representative Eric Massa (D-NY)  has denied that he’s retiring from Congress amid allegations that he sexually harassed a Congressional aide.

“The allegations are totally false. I am a salty old sailor,” Massa said. “There are blogs that are saying that I am leaving because of charges of harassing my staff. Do and have I used salty language? Yes and I have tried to do better.”

Massa contends he’s leaving after only one term because of health reasons. He previously suffered from non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

The Jawa Report questions the media as to whether they will cover this news story the same if it was a Republican in hot water.

Massa has stated that as of  Wednesday afternoon that no one has brought allegations of misconduct to him. Maybe they were too busy with Charlie Rangel? With political cover up, the fact that no one had borough allegations of misconduct hardly means that no misconduct was done.

There is a larger picture developing on the political landscape, the number of Democrats retiring form districts that McCain won in 2008. The hand writing seems to be on the wall. Here are those districts.

Massa is the seventh House Democrat leaving a seat that Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) won in 2008. That means that 43 percent of the Democratic retirements in the House so far in this election have come in McCain districts. It also means that 14 percent of the 49 Democratic members who hold McCain districts are retiring this fall.