House Votes to Investigate Dem Leaders

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Taking a page from Nancy Pelosi’s own playbook, House Republican leaders today introduced a privileged resolution demanding that the Ethics Committee investigate what the Democratic leaders knew about former Rep. Eric Massa’s alleged groping of males interns and staff and when they found out. The resolution was almost identically worded to the one Pelosi introduced in the wake of the Mark Foley scandal. As it did to former Speaker Dennis Hastert’s Republican conference back then, the vote put Dems in an awkward situation: they don’t want to be seen in any way condoning Massa’s acts or to be covering them up but nor do they relish having their leaders probed. The House voted 402-1 for the investigation. The move comes as reports that that the Ethics Committee was wrapping up its investigation of Massa as they no longer have jurisdiction over him following his resignation this week. As I’ve noted before, the Democrats’ handling of Massa was different than the GOP’s of Foley: Dems months ago referred the matter to the Ethics Committee which began an investigation. And this time around, apparently some media outlets (ahem, Fox News) are also handling the stories differently.