Pelosi Says Democrats Didn’t Push Massa to Give Up House Seat
March 10, 2010, 12:02 AM ESTBy Jonathan D. Salant
March 10 (Bloomberg) -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi dismissed claims by former Democratic Representative Eric Massa that he was pressured to leave Congress because of his opposition to health-care legislation.
Pelosi, interviewed on “Charlie Rose,” which airs on PBS and Bloomberg Television, said that Massa, 50, first called her to say that he wasn’t going to seek re-election because of a recurrence of cancer. Massa, who represented an Upstate New York congressional district, changed course and resigned on March 8, citing an ongoing House ethics committee investigation into allegations that he harassed his staff.
“This is a very sick person,” said Pelosi, a California Democrat. “Perhaps his judgment is impaired because of the ethical issues that have arisen, and he is no longer in the Congress.”
On another front, Pelosi said congressional leaders may release the outlines of proposed changes to the Senate health- care legislation as early as today. The timing depends on getting a review back from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, she said.
Obama’s health-care plan relies mostly on a Senate bill passed in December. He’s pressing House Democrats to approve that bill while passing another measure that would make negotiated changes. The changes would be passed under a budget procedure called reconciliation that would require a simple majority vote in the Democratic-controlled, 100-member Senate, rather than the 60 that often is needed for major legislation.
‘Can’t Walk Away’
“We’re in a good place at this moment to get the bill through the House,” Pelosi said. “We can’t walk away from it.”
She said Massa’s vote wasn’t going to make or break the outcome of the health-care vote in the House. “Sometimes, we really exaggerate our own importance in a lot of these things,” she said.
In a weekend interview with a radio station in his district, Massa took aim at both the congressional leadership and White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, who he said told him that he needed to support Obama on health care. He said in the interview that the Democrats conspired to oust him because he had voted against overhauling health care.
“Rahm Emanuel is the son of the devil’s spawn,” Massa said. “He is an individual who would sell his mother to get a vote. He would strap his children to the front end of a steam locomotive.”
Defending Emanuel
Pelosi defended Emanuel, who as a House member from Illinois served as chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and in 2006 helped his party capture the majority in the House.
Obama “respects him for his knowledge of the issues and the values that he has, that he shares with the president,” Pelosi said. “He didn’t hire a party hack. He hired a policy person who understands policy, who’s astute, understands politics.”
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs yesterday called allegations that the White House was involved in Massa’s departure “silly and ridiculous.”
Discussing Obama’s domestic agenda, Pelosi said that legislation to overhaul health care and a separate measure to reduce the emissions blamed for global warming would both create jobs and eliminate the need for a new stimulus measure. Also helping to create jobs would be the reauthorization of transportation projects funded through the federal gasoline tax.
She said the Senate will pass energy legislation, even if it’s not the same as the House measure.
Financial Protection Agency
On overhauling financial regulations, Pelosi said one major issue in the debate was an independent consumer financial protection agency. The House legislation sets up a stand-alone agency, while senators are considering placing it within the Federal Reserve.
Pelosi said the agency needed to be independent, though “it doesn’t have to be standing alone,” she said. She did’t rule out placing the agency within the Federal Reserve.
“Wherever it exists, it must be able to have its own budget, its own rules and its own enforcement,” she said. “Let the debate go on as to whether it should be in the Fed.”
--With assistance from Kristin Jensen in Washington. Editors: Jim Kirk, Don Frederick
To contact the reporter on this story: Jonathan D. Salant in Washington at jsalant@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jim Kirk in Washington at jkirk12@bloomberg.net.
