Esquire magazine in September of 2007, when it praised “Eric Massa, the Angry Citizen” as number 35 on their “Esquire 100” list of “emerging ideas, trends, discoveries, products, people, and obscene gestures you should know about before everyone else does:”
The war, certainly, is a part of his platform, along with health care, veterans’ benefits, and labor rights. The war makes him sick. What really sets him off is politicians using the phrase “This soldier gave his life.” “Here’s a news flash: No soldier gives his life,” he says. “That’s not the way it works. Most soldiers who make a conscious decision to place themselves in harm’s way do it to protect their buddies. They do it because of the bonds of friendship — and it goes so much deeper than friendship.”
Massa is excitable, and everyone worries about his health while he’s out there hustling, staying until the last handshake, eating too late at night. “At my last physical, the doctor said, ‘Doing this again could kill you.’ And I said — and this is true, hand to God — ‘My not running for Congress could result in hundreds of soldiers getting killed. So you tell me where the risk balance is.’ This country is in danger of losing the United States of America in one generation. So it’s not, Will you run again? it’s, How could I not?”
He says that if you need any more reason to watch his sleepy district, it’s this: If either Hillary Clinton or Rudy Giuliani ends up a candidate, he argues, the 29th District of New York will decide the election. “This will be what it hasn’t been since FDR: the battleground state. Neither one of them can afford to lose New York, and it’s the red part of New York that’s up for grabs. I’m telling you. And I will be in the center of that firestorm. And I am ready for that. I am mentally and physically prepared for that.”
Nancy Pelosi, today: “This is a very sick person. Perhaps his judgment is impaired because of the ethical issues that have arisen, and he is no longer in the Congress.”
Glenn Reynolds surveys the Democrats’ current Romper Room optics and quips, “This is the best circus Washington has ever seen. Enjoy it!”
Hey, it’s all fun and games with the Chief of Staff™ in the shower until your healthcare decisions start becoming made for you inside of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member