Massa to staff member: "What I really ought to be doing is frakking you."

[jefferson_dem]

Massa Says Democrats Pushed Ethics Charges

Rep. Eric Massa (D-NY) -- who will resign at 5 p.m. today -- said that an ethics investigation "was triggered by a comment he made to a staffer at a New Year's Eve wedding, and intimated that Democrats desperate to pass health care legislation pushed the issue to get Massa, a vocal opponent, out of the way," the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle.

Said Massa: "Now they've gotten rid of me and it will pass."

After dancing and drinking, Massa said a male staff member "made an intonation that maybe I should be chasing after the bridesmaid."

Massa responded by saying, "Well, what I really ought to be doing is frakking you."

Read more: http://politicalwire.com/archives/2010/03/08/massa_says_democrats_pushed_ethics_charges.html#ixzz0haaYpTm5

[On the Road]

1. "Made an Intonation"?

in·to·na·tion

1 : something that is intoned; specifically : the opening tones of a Gregorian chant
2 : the act of intoning and especially of chanting
3 : the ability to play or sing notes in tune
4 : manner of utterance; specifically : the rise and fall in pitch of the voice in speech

[Jennicut]

2. Frakking or was it the other "f" word?

This whole thing is beginning to seem bizarre.

[Tom Rinaldo]

3. Not bizarre at all...

I just heard a clip of Massa describing what happened. There was a wedding reception that turned into a late night party. Obviously someone got married who was well known to Massa and much of his staff who were present. People were having fun, people were drinking. Massa danced with both the bride and some bridesmaids. One of his young staff members, who was drunk by then, teased him. When Massa described what the staffer said to him in his radio interview, he said he was using cleaned up language, i.e "an intonation" but the actual language said to him by the staff member about the bridesmaid was much more graphic. Massa joked back, and tussled the hair of the staff member who he got accused of harassing while he made his comment. I have no doubt Massa used the major "f" word and not "frakking", the drunk joking going on at the table was sexual in content. Massa says he left the reception at that point and went home because people were getting sloppy drunk.

I know Eric Massa. I spent weeks campaigning for him both times he ran for Congress. Eric never has been and never will be a buttoned down "polished" politician. He is very down to earth and real in all of his interactions with the public. You really can sit down and have a beer with him after the work day is over. He is honest and he is caring and he is open to a fault.

The last time I campaigned for him I stayed at the house of his office manager. That person became his office manager after having volunteered for Eric before. Eric hired her after he found out that she lost her job and had no income to support herself and her physically disabled husband. He hired her even though she told him she could not always work regular hours, which in fact became a real inconvenience to his campaign, but he hired her anyway because he knew she needed employment badly. And he let her make her own hours based on her family needs.

Knowing Eric the incident behind this ethics charge is not a mystery at all. It was good natured "fucking around" with his staff the same way people might talk in a fire house or on a ship. It was not a true public setting, it was more like a family celebration and it was one of his staff members who began the sexual joking. And as a said above, Eric recognized that it was probably a good time to head home once things had gotten that loose. Eric was being Eric, and I am proud of having helped get him elected to Congress.

[Jennicut]

4. Actually, it just seemed bizarre that the staff member wouldn't think of that as a joke.

Very strange. I hope no one was really out to get him.

[Hekate]

12. Seeing as how the staffer started it, I'm a bit puzzled as how that constituted real harassment...

... on Massa's part. I would have left before then, but that's just me.

I know a young man who was sexually harassed in the legal definition of the thing. His boss was female, very cute, petite, and old enough to be his mother. It was an ongoing pattern of conduct on her part, and her behavior started out subtle and finally got very close to stalking. It was no joke, and it was emotionally extremely disturbing to him to be manipulated and threatened in this fashion.

If Massa was sexually harassing a staffer of either sex, it wouldn't be a single drunken joke at an after-party. It would be a pattern of conduct. I hope that's not the case.

Hekate

[Starbucks Anarchist]

5. "Frak" is a reference from Battlestar Galactica that translates to "fuck."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frak_(expletive)

[Jennicut]

6. I used to watch that show as a kid and never noticed that.

The things you learn as an adult...

[Starbucks Anarchist]

7. The newer version of the show uses it much more.

Highly recommended, BTW. It's one of the best shows I've ever seen and ties into politics quite well.

[Freddie Stubbs]

10. Perhaps Massa is a Cylon

[Enrique]

8. is that it?

please tell me this "scandal" is based on something more than that.

[vaberella]

9. I hate when anyone who uses BSG terminology. Ugh. n/t

[Cha]

11. So now we know what transpired..

I guess.