Eric Massa, former NY Rep for the Twenty-Ninth District of New York, appeared last evening on Glenn Beck and Larry King, and had two great opportunities to come clean and blow the lid off of the corruption he railed against on Sunday during his 90-minute tirade of a radio interview.  What could have been one of the biggest stories sine the original Watergate, Massa deftly used up his 15 minutes of fame and left us all feeling empty and manipulated.   He failed to produce anything of any substance, and even appeared to change some of the details originally provided: “I wasn’t forced out.  I forced myself out.”

His appearance on Glenn Beck ended essentially with Mr. Beck looking into the camera and apologizing for wasting America’s time.  Hear, hear, Mr. Beck.  I must agree with you.  From the great blog site Wisdom of Soloman, we can also read:

Unfortunately Massa had nothing of real substance to offer come airtime of Beck’s Fox News Channel program. Glenn tried and tried to bring Massa to a point where he could open up and name names, indict anyone of poor character… anything. Massa waffled about, not really saying anything of substance. Sadly it seemed that every time Beck came up on a commercial break Massa acted as if he understood what Beck was asking of him, yet when the show resumed he was back to square one.

Clearly Glenn wanted to interview the man Massa seemed to be based on his now famous rants against Rahm Emanuel, Nancy Pelosi, and Washington leadership in general. Instead Massa seemed to be on a media tour, looking for his last fifteen minutes before he rides off into the sunset. He didn’t even really want to discuss the same issues he was so willing to carry on about just a couple of days ago.

One must wonder what happened to Eric Massa over the last 24 hours for him to clam up and appear to be a totally different person than expected. Is everything he said on those now famous recordings all lies? Has Massa been threatened? How can a man who just a couple of days ago was casting wild aspersions about The White House and Congressional leadership suddenly seem to havbe nothing to say? Was there a payoff involved?

All in all, I think Massa looked a bit like a cornered rat; still dangerous and perhaps capable of inflicting damage out of desperation, but not the formidable predator he perhaps once represented. I also think he’s scared for his future and may have either held back, or may be guilty of more than we know.

Later that evening, Massa did appear on Larry King, on CNN, and pretty much yielded similar disappointments.

I will now walk away from this issue, just as Massa said he will be doing.  He had the chance, he had the microphone, he had the audience, and he failed.  Soloman, in his blog excerpt above, wonders about a payoff of some kind.  At this point, anything is possible.

Eric Massa’s seat is now vacant according to The House of Representatives’ Office of the Clerk website:

Office of the Twenty-Ninth Congressional District of New York
Formerly the Office of Representative Eric J. J. Massa

The Washington, D.C. office and the district of the Honorable Eric J. J. Massa will continue to serve the people of the Twenty-Ninth Congressional District of New York under the supervision of the Clerk of the House of Representatives. Representative Massa resigned on March 8, 2010. The vacancy became effective March 9, 2010.

Given the general cloud of suspicion and unanswered questions surrounding Massa and his 15 minutes of fame, perhaps they should burn that seat and bring in a fresh one.

Author’s note:  Please go and read the full blog posting by Wisdom of Soloman.  He presents an interesting theory regarding this whole Massa affair.  It’s worth a look!

Also see Michelle Malkin’s insight.