House Republicans are pushing hard for an investigation into Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s handling of accusations that ex-Rep. Eric Massa sexually harassed a male staffer, putting Democrats in a politically dangerous position.
The House voted 402-1 to refer to the ethics committee a demand put forward by GOP leaders that the panel ask Democratic leaders about how they responded to sexual harassment allegations against Massa.
The move came a day after the ethics panel quietly dropped its probe into Massa, a freshmen New York Democrat. Massa resigned Monday amid allegations he groped male staffers in his office. In interviews Massa said aides had misinterpreted tickling and other horseplay. The ethics panel closed the case because it has no jurisdiction over former members, but the GOP wants the 10-member, bipartisan committee to start a new investigation into the Democratic leadership’s handling of the matter.
Pelosi’s staff has acknowledged receiving complaints about Massa’s behavior as early as October 2009. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., forced Massa to refer the complaint to the ethics committee when he heard about it in February.
“All we do know is there are a continuing stream of press reports which raise questions [about] what was known and when it was known,” said House Minority Whip Eric Cantor, R-Va.
The vote does not compel the ethics committee to follow through with the Republican resolution, which would have required the panel to open an official investigation. Instead, it merely directs the panel to consider the resolution.
An investigation could be politically devastating if Pelosi is found to have overlooked warning signs about Massa’s behavior. Democratic aides have told reporters that Massa’s chief of staff informed the speaker’s office in October about concerns that Massa was living with five aides in a group home on Capitol Hill and had gone to dinner alone with a junior aide to Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass. Pelosi aides were made aware of the groping allegations from Hoyer’s office in February. Pelosi, though, told reporters last week she only learned of any accusations against Massa on March 3.
Four years ago, the Republican majority watched its poll numbers plummet after media reports disclosed Rep. Mark Foley, a six-term lawmaker from Florida, was pursuing underage male House pages while the GOP leadership did little or nothing to intervene.
Frank said there is no comparing the two cases.
“I believe they will be shown to have done a very appropriate job, which is very different than Mark Foley,” Frank said. “Mark Foley had to be broken by the press.”
But Rep. Steven LaTourette, R-Ohio, a former member of the ethics committee, sees similarities to the Foley case, which resulted in an ethics committee report that accused House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., and then-Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, of working to conceal the matter.
“The stories this week seem to indicate that at least those questions have been raised about the speaker and the majority leader,” LaTourette said.
