FRC Calls for Investigation of Massa Scandal

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Mar 11, 2010, 04:42 ET

When Did Speaker Pelosi Know About Massa's Conduct?

WASHINGTON, March 11 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Following today's 420-1 vote in the House of Representatives to refer to the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct (commonly called the Ethics Committee) a resolution calling for an investigation into how Democratic leaders handled the sexual harassment allegations against Congressman Eric Massa (D-NY), Family Research Council (FRC) President Tony Perkins released the following statement:

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080930/FRCLOGO)

"Back in 2006, the sexual overtures of then-Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL) toward House pages arguably cost his party its majority status and its Speaker, Dennis Hastert, his leadership role. One of the loudest voices in that fray was then-Rep. Nancy Pelosi, who used the incident to take plenty of political scalps.

"Now that the scandal is on the other foot, and Democrat Eric Massa has resigned under accusations that he sexually harassed male staffers, Speaker Pelosi's office is surprisingly mum. Gone is the righteous indignation she expressed in 2006 for 'the children, their parents, the public' over Mark Foley's 'abhorrent behavior' -- behavior Eric Massa might have taken even farther than Foley.

"Today, new reports are swarming that Speaker Pelosi was warned about Rep. Massa's conduct by her own Party back in October. She did nothing until Rep. Massa promised to vote no on the President's health care plan. Suddenly, she and other leaders sprang into action a full six months after learning reports about Massa's relationships. Coincidence?

"In a letter to the House Ethics Committee in October 2006, then-Rep. Pelosi demanded that since 'Republican Leaders admitted to knowing about [Foley's indiscretions]... for six months to a year and failed to protect the children in their trust... Republican Leaders must be investigated by the Ethics Committee and immediately questioned under oath.' Fast forward four years to this week, when Democrats tried to close the case after Massa stepped down. They hoped to sweep a messy ethics probe under the rug, but this afternoon, the House voted to keep the inquiry alive. Given Speaker Pelosi's 2006 insistence that this behavior 'never happen again,' Republicans are right: The investigation of Dennis Hastert's successor must go on."

SOURCE Family Research Council