Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Massa Remains Mum on Client 9

According to Rottenchester, Massa has apparently donated the $2,000.00 he received from Spitzer this year to the Steuben County's Net Domestic Abuse Program. Good for him.

I'm still wondering, though, why Massa's remaining silent about Eliot "John" Spitzer, especially after today's reports that Spitzer has "used hookers for 6 years" and spent "perhaps as much as $80,000" for such services over the years. Congressman Kuhl issued a statement today stating that Spitzer should step down. Most of the major New York papers have called for Spitzer's resignation, along with the local ones. Democrat Congresswoman Kirsten Gillibrand also called on Spitzer to resign today, as did local Democrat politicians in Ontario County, so why the continued silence, Eric?

UPDATE: Rottenchester has the full press release from Massa today, which I would have gladly posted before, but it wasn't on his campaign website. Regardless, Massa says, "If in fact these accusations are true, I hope the Governor does the right thing." Now, we can try to assume that Massa is suggesting that Spitzer should resign, but unlike Gillibrand and the other Dems I mentioned above, he's not flat out saying that. This comment appears to be ambiguous on purpose. It could mean to some that he's saying that Spitzer should resign, or merely that he should just plead for his family's forgiveness. So Eric, for the record, answer me this, "Yes or no, should Spitzer resign?"

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

It would seem to me that the Republicans would be better served by just keeping quiet and watching the dems self destruct over this. Randy should have not piled on and Massa would be smart to keep his mouth shut about this

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Rottenchester said...

I updated that post with the rest of the press release on my blog. As any reasonable person would expect, Massa repudiates Spitzer's behavior.

Also, I agree with Anonymous -- using Spitzer in a clumsy attempt to draw horns and a tail on Massa is probably counterproductive.

The Ontario Republican said...

Anonymous: Congressman Kuhl, who is a representative from New York in the U.S. House, issuing a statement about our governor who has been accused of committing multiple felonies is not "piling on." It's his duty to issue such a statement to let his constituents know where he stands on this.

Rottenchester: Thanks for posting the full release. As I stated in my update, Massa did not state whether Spitzer should resign or not. Instead, he gave us an open-ended response. Frankly, given the support he gave to and received from Spitzer in '06, we should expect Massa to state in unequivocal terms whether he believes that Spitzer should resign or not.

Rottenchester said...

Your rhetoric is over the top.

Kuhl has no "duty" to issue such a statement. If so, then Tom Reynolds, is apparently guilty of dereliction of duty. Unlike Kuhl, he's said nothing that's been picked up by the press:

http://news.google.com/news?q=tom+reynolds+spitzer

As anonymous said, some smarter Republican politicians are keeping the hell out of this, especially those with their own ethics problems.

Massa's actions speak louder than words, even though Massa's words are plain to me. Returning the money less than 24 hours after the scandal erupted is an unequivocal disassociation.

When spin begins to deny the basic humanity of the moment, then you begin to sound shrill. The basic human tragedy here is that Spitzer betrayed the good-faith trust of his political allies, as well as the trust of his family.