Hotline After Dark -- Weapons Of Massa Destruction
"World News," "Evening News" and "Nightly News" each led with the fallout from the Toyota Prius that malfunctioned on a CA highway.
Ex-Rep. Eric Massa (D-NY) went on "Glenn Beck" 3/9 p.m.
Massa, on his decision to resign: "I wasn't forced out. I forced myself out. I failed. I didn't live up to my own codes. ... I own this. I take full and complete responsibility for my misbehavior. And goodness only knows what allegations they are going to throw at me. There's even new ones today and we'll talk about that. I'm not blaming anybody."
Massa, on allegations that he groped a male staffer: "Now, they're saying I groped a male staffer. Yes, I did. Not only did I grope him, I tickled him until he couldn't breathe and four guys jumped on top of me. It was my 50th birthday. It was 'kill the old guy.' You can take anything out of context."
FNC's Beck: "You say that you were leaving because of the cancer scare."
Massa: "No. I decided not to run again. ... And then all of this blew up and I held myself accountable and resigned. Two different things. One happened before the other."
Massa, on his shower encounter with WH CoS Rahm Emanuel: "Rahm was angry at me. He poked his finger in my chest while I was taking a shower. It's exactly -- I mean, I've gone through this on the radio show. Not only did it happen, I'll never forget it. Rahm Emanuel hates me. He doesn't like me. I get it."
After the jump, more Massa, and pols continue the health care debate.
Massa, on Emanuel: "He and I are not friends. By the way -- and I owe him an apology. I do, because on my radio show, I went over the top. I said he would tie his kids to the railroad to the get a vote. He wouldn't do that. He'd tie my kids to the railroad to get a vote, but maybe not his. And so, in hyperbole, I was guilty. I went over the top. Enough said on that."
More Massa: "But this is not about him, and frankly, it's not about me. It's about something that's so much bigger than that ... And that is, you can either go along and get along, or you can literally be bought and sold legally."
Massa, on resigning from Congress: "For 30 years, I've been doing it. I can't fight this. I can't fight cancer. I can't fight the White House. I can't fight the Democratic Party. I can't fight the Republicans. I can't fight anymore. I don't have it anymore" (FNC, 3/9).
IT'S LIKE A FEEDING FRENZY
Ex-WH adviser David Gergen: "People say that Washington politics is a freak show. And Eric Massa is writing a whole new chapter. ... I don't know whether this fellow needs media help or mental help. It's probably both" ("AC 360," CNN, 3/9).
Newsweek's Fineman: "You can see that Glenn Beck wasn't quite sure what he was going to get. He was sort of like an 8-year-old, you know, hoping to get a big tasty bowl of ice cream with, you know, chocolate sauce on it, instead it was sort of a big hunk of overripe cheese, you know? It was terrible and he couldn't stand it within 10 minutes of the thing, because ... Massa backtracked on blaming Rahm Emanuel" ("Countdown," MSNBC, 3/9).
Huffington Post's Huffington: "I never thought anything would make me feel sympathetic towards Glenn Beck, but having to interview Eric Massa for an entire hour made me really feel for him. ... [Massa] is not really going to have any effect on the health care battle. It only means that Nancy Pelosi now needs 216 votes, rather than 217. But he was not the defining vote, as he tried to make the world believe" ("AC 360," CNN, 3/9).
Time's Halperin, on Massa: "He wouldn't win a gold medal in consistency. ... I think that his 15 minutes of fame are nearing an end. The fact that he's left Congress means that the Ethics Committee can't get him, and he probably didn't do anything for which he would be indicted. So he's gotten out, for whatever reason, in time to avoid this from really spiralling out of control in an official investigation" ("Campbell Brown," CNN, 3/9).
IT'S STILL THERE, BUT YOU HAVE TO LOOK VEEEERY CLOSELY
Among the pols weighing in on health care 3/9:
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI): "Lots of horse-trading taking place. ... Abortion is obviously a big part of it. It's very clear to us that even if they try to fix what we call the [Rep.] [Bart] Stupak [D-MI] language in this reconciliation thing, that's not going to survive the Senate. If that Senate bill goes into law, it will federally finance abortions, no matter what any House Democrat who doesn't want it to do says so."
Ryan, on Stupak agreeing to the language in the Senate health care bill: "I don't think they will agree to the language in the Senate bill. What I worry about is they will fall prey to a false promise in what we call this reconciliation bill. ... What we know is very clear is that abortion language, the Stupak language in the reconciliation bill, will fall in the Senate. It won't go into law, thereby making taxpayer funding of abortion legal for the first time in a generation" ("On The Record," FNC, 3/9).
Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO), on Stupak: "Congressman Stupak is completely wrong. The House version that we passed before ... had a compromise that we reached in my committee which kept the status quo in place, because we want this to be a health care bill, not an abortion bill. So, we agreed that we would keep current law that says no federal funding for abortion. That language was also contained in the Senate version that was passed. So, there's nothing in the law as it stands right now that would allow federal funding for abortion" ("Countdown," MSNBC, 3/9).