Massa denies sexual-harassment allegations

WASHINGTON — A day after resigning his seat in the face of a House ethics investigation, former Rep. Eric Massa took to the airwaves Tuesday to deny that he had ever touched a male office staffer in a sexual manner.

Massa, D-N.Y., has been the subject of an investigation over allegations of sexual harassment of his staff. He resigned his seat late Monday and went on the Glenn Beck television program Tuesday to defend himself and deny new allegations that he had "groped" a staffer.

"I did nothing sexual," Massa said in a rambling interview. "I did things that were wrong."

Massa, 50, said he had "tickled" a staff member at a birthday party "until he couldn't breathe." Earlier, he had said that he had tousled the hair of a staff member at a wedding and had made remarks about sex.

The interview — during which Massa produced a yearbook from his days at the U.S. Naval Academy and a copy of a chest X-ray — capped a bizarre five days that saw the first-term congressman offer varying explanations for his decision to step down.

As the allegations surfaced last week, Massa declared he would not run for re-election because of health concerns. He later said he would resign immediately as rumors concerning his behavior swirled.

Over the weekend, Massa took a more defiant stance, suggesting the ethics investigation had been orchestrated by House Democratic leaders because he voted against their version of the health-care overhaul in November.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., vehemently denied that Tuesday. "That's absurd," said Hoyer, whose office had forwarded a complaint from a Massa staffer to the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, which launched an investigation. "That is really untrue."

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs dismissed Massa's remarks as well.

"On Wednesday, he was having a recurrence of cancer," Gibbs said Tuesday morning. "On Thursday, he was guilty of using salty language. On Friday, we learned he's before the ethics committee to be investigated on charges of sexual harassment."

"I don't know why I would give any weight to what he said on the fourth day," Gibbs added later in the day.

Massa also said Sunday that White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel had confronted him "naked" in the congressional shower in a dispute over the president's budget. He called Emanuel "the son of the devil's spawn."

The House accepted Massa's resignation early Tuesday.

On the Beck program, Massa said his time in Congress had exhausted him, and he was leaving to spend more time with his family. He compared his behavior with male workers in his office to the time he spent in the Navy, producing pictures of men wrestling from his Naval Academy yearbook.

"That looks like an orgy from Caligula," he said of the photos.

Massa said he blamed himself for the controversy and backtracked from charges that Democratic leaders had forced him from office.

"I should have never allowed myself to be as familiar with my staff as I was," Massa said. "I take full responsibility for my own actions."

Beck was clearly displeased with Massa's interview.

"America, I have wasted your time," Beck said at the close of his program.