Midnight Mike
2010-04-18, 10:08 AM
Why were complaints about Rep. Eric Massa not made public for so long? Because of the culture of Capitol Hill.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/236500
It took just three weeks for upstate New York Democratic Rep. Eric Massa to resign his seat in Congress after accusations surfaced that he had sexually harassed members of his staff. The long trail of unwanted and often abusive advances that preceded his resignation—and why his alleged behavior went unreported for so long—highlights how much Capitol Hill is a feudal society, with each member the lord of his or her own territory.
The Washington Post on Tuesday documented numerous complaints about Massa made by junior staffers and interns to the married lawmaker's chief of staff, who appears to have seen his role as trying to contain the damage as opposed to blowing the whistle on his boss's bad behavior. Accusations about the two-term congressman acting inappropriately dated back to the 2006 campaign and continued once he was in office. By March 2009, according to the Post, Massa was out of control, with drinking as his means of handling his sexually conflicted emotions.
Aides reported seeing him pour booze into a coffee cup in the morning, and in the evenings he was allegedly sometimes so drunk that he couldn't tell his aides where he was so that they could pick him up. But outside his fiercely protective top staff, his predatory actions appear to have been largely unknown. He reportedly had a reputation as a demanding and unreliable member of the Democratic caucus, insisting on legislative favors for his district and then withholding his vote on key bills dealing with issues like health-care reform and energy. Members of the Democratic leadership, which is responsible for disciplining its members, maintain they knew very little about Massa's not-so-secret life.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/236500
It took just three weeks for upstate New York Democratic Rep. Eric Massa to resign his seat in Congress after accusations surfaced that he had sexually harassed members of his staff. The long trail of unwanted and often abusive advances that preceded his resignation—and why his alleged behavior went unreported for so long—highlights how much Capitol Hill is a feudal society, with each member the lord of his or her own territory.
The Washington Post on Tuesday documented numerous complaints about Massa made by junior staffers and interns to the married lawmaker's chief of staff, who appears to have seen his role as trying to contain the damage as opposed to blowing the whistle on his boss's bad behavior. Accusations about the two-term congressman acting inappropriately dated back to the 2006 campaign and continued once he was in office. By March 2009, according to the Post, Massa was out of control, with drinking as his means of handling his sexually conflicted emotions.
Aides reported seeing him pour booze into a coffee cup in the morning, and in the evenings he was allegedly sometimes so drunk that he couldn't tell his aides where he was so that they could pick him up. But outside his fiercely protective top staff, his predatory actions appear to have been largely unknown. He reportedly had a reputation as a demanding and unreliable member of the Democratic caucus, insisting on legislative favors for his district and then withholding his vote on key bills dealing with issues like health-care reform and energy. Members of the Democratic leadership, which is responsible for disciplining its members, maintain they knew very little about Massa's not-so-secret life.