Eric Massa: 'I Was Set Up' for Voting Against Health Care, Rahm Emanuel 'Devil's Spawn'

Resigning Rep. Eric Massa (D-N.Y.) used his regular segment on a western New York radio station Sunday to address his resignation from Congress at 5 this afternoon, angrily denouncing the political structure in Washington and defending himself against rumors of sexual misconduct.

In his bizarre exit interview on WKPQ-FM, the freshman Democrat admitted to using "inappropriate language" with a staff member, but he also charged that the scandal enveloping him stems from a conspiracy by congressional Democrats to force him from office because he voted against health care reform last year and would likely do so again.

"Mine is now the deciding vote on the health care bill," he said. "And this administration and this Democratic leadership have said they will stop at nothing to pass this bill. Now they've gotten rid of me and it will pass. You connect the dots."

He also lashed out at White House Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel, calling him "devil's spawn" who "would sell his own mother."

Massa announced last week that he would retire from Congress at the end of his first term rather than run for re-election because he had a third cancer scare after two bouts of lymphoma. Two days later, the congressman said he would resign effective Monday because he feared that a congressional ethics investigation would "tear his family apart."

During the radio show, Massa recounted an incident on New Year's Eve that he said the ethics charges stem from, describing the wedding of a staff member that he attended with his wife. Massa said after dancing with the bride and a bridesmaid, he sat down at a table of his staff members, "all bachelors," he noted, when one of them suggested the congressman should go back to be with the bridesmaid.

Massa explained what happened next. "I grabbed the staff member next to me and said 'What I really ought to be doing is fracking you.' I then tousled the guy's hair and left." Massa allowed that such a statement to a staff member was inappropriate, but he then slammed a second staff member who felt uncomfortable with the exchange and reported it to a supervisor, who informed House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer's office of the incident. "It was a third-party political-correctness statement," Massa said angrily.

No matter what happened that night, Massa said Sunday that the real reason behind his troubles is his choice last November not to vote for health care reform, running afoul of Democrats' plans to pass the bill one way or another. After Massa resigns, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will need 216 votes, rather than 217, to pass the bill.

For the rest of the hour-plus interview, Massa elaborated on allegations by a local radio host that he had made unwelcome advances toward men he served with in the Navy. Massa described a "grossly obscene" initiation ceremony aboard a Navy ship he served on for men who crossed the equator for the first time, as well as another period at sea in quarters so close, "you can't help but get in each other's knickers."

Massa lashed out at "the incredible corruption of money in politics today," accused Hoyer of lying about him, railed against both political parties, and brought out the X-rays from his recent doctor's visit to prove his statements about a possible cancer diagnosis.

"It makes me weep to know that our country is being destroyed from within, with the absolute BS I have to live with for the past five days, the attempted destruction of my family and the slurs. . . . We are a better and bigger country like that."

Finally, Massa warned, "I will not go quietly. . . . I was set up from this from the very beginning."