They’re out now and sweeping the Internet. And they’re so entertaining that the only questions that remain are: will some filmmaker make them into a flick one day like Frost-Nixon? Will they be turned into a Broadway musical? Videos of Fox’s powerhouse talk show host Glenn Beck’s (in)famous interview with former Democratic Rep. Eric Massa is whipping around cyberspace faster than the latest virus — 24 hours after causing journalists, bloggers and Twitter addicts to stay glued to their TVs and their keyboards.
And here they are. Who “won” (except for SNL)? Who lost (except for Beck’s credibility as a judge of a story that’ll bust this town wide open )? We embed…YOU decide.
PART ONE:
PART TWO:
Meanwhile, the story continues to generate lots of follow up stories and posts. To wit:
—Dem. Rep. Anthony Weiner isn’t complimentary:
Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) weighed in today on former Rep. Eric Massa’s (D-NY) admission that he and male staffers engaged in “tickle fights,” calling his former colleague “one taco short of a happy meal.”
On Don Imus’ program on Fox Business today, Weiner took a few shots at Massa:
“I don’t know why these accusations of impropriety are always coming down on the guys that are having tickle fights with their staffers. It just seems so unfair to stereotype.”“I have very few hard and fast rules,” he added. “One of them is not to have sword fights in the morning with Rahm Emanuel.” Weiner was referring to Massa’s claims that Emanuel confronted him in the House gym showers.
—Gawker says the story is, in effect, every story:
“He wakes up to Massa undoing his pants trying to snorkel him.” Eric Massa’s Navy shipmates are speaking out. Add them to the list of people Massa’s touched, from Rahm Emanuel to David Paterson. This story has everything.
In the course of his meltdown, this former New York congressman has managed to inject himself into every single major political/media story of the last year. It is uncanny. Just take a look at the list.
Go to the link to read the list.
–The House panels says that since he resigned they’ve ended their ethics probe (as several readers, bloggers and Tweeters pointed out, headline writers love the word “probe” in this story: it does more for readers than “tickle”). Here is the Washington Post’s report.
—The WaPo’s Chris Cillizza in a post fittingly titled “Assessing the Eric Massa impact (or lack thereof)” writes, in part:
Former representative Eric Massa’s twin appearances on Fox News Channel’s “Glenn Beck Show” and CNN’s “Larry King Live” Tuesday night made for some of the most watchable political television in recent memory.
But, does the Massa mishegas (not bad, eh?) have any real impact on the current political environment? Yes and no. In the short term, the impact is fairly obvious. For Democrats, Massa’s seeming unwillingness to go quietly into that good night means a week filled with distractions as the party attempts to rally behind President Obama’s health care plan. For Republicans, the short-term danger is in overplaying their hand on the scandal — either by casting themselves in a sort-of holier-than-thou pose that has been a recipe for disaster for both parties in recent years on ethics issues, or by embracing (bad word choice) Massa too closely given that there appear to be more revelations to come.
The longer term political impact (if any) of the Massa situation is tougher to gauge. Democrats insist that it will be a fleeting moment with little import to voters this fall. “It will have the lasting impact of an ice cube on the street in D.C. in the middle of summer,” said Democratic consultant Chris LeHane. “Outside of a few hundred people in D.C. no one knows Massa, no one cares about Massa and no one will be talking about Massa in a few days.”
(Actually most will likely be talking about trying to rip the image out of their minds painted by Massa of Rahm Emanuel’s “tush.”)
–The WaPo’s Jonathan Capehart says “Messa hysteria” is not a laughing matter.
–Dimewars says Massa “punked” Beck.
—The Politico writes that Republicans are looking into ways to exploit the Massa controversy and media attention:
After a week of lying low and watching House Democrats struggle with the Eric Massa sex scandal and resignation, GOP leaders are now weighing their options on how best to exploit the controversy.
Republicans are considering a call for a formal investigation into the handling of sexual harassment allegations against Massa by at least one member of his staff, although the GOP leadership has not decided whether to make that push yet, according to top aides.
Specifically, Republicans want to know when Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) or their top staffers became aware of the allegations against Massa and how they responded to them, beyond what Democratic leaders have said publicly so far about the scandal.
“There are a number of questions that must be answered here about how Democratic leaders handled the issues surrounding these very serious allegations,” said a senior GOP aide, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
Republican leaders will meet on Wednesday to review the Massa controversy and see what their next steps, if any, will be, said the aides.
—Nancy Pelosi on Massa: “Poor baby..”
UPDATE: It sounds as if Beck is doing some CYA with a statement that is either cynically calculated to deflect attention from the debacle of his “scoop” or indicative of severe paranoia — at a time when he is trying to restore his credibility with some of the conservatives who tried to keep him from driving his career car over a cliff. The Washington Independent:
Beck indulged the “possibility” that somebody “got to” Massa and turned him — at the very least, said Beck, the former congressman “lied” in a pre-interview. Beck’s crew laughed about Massa’s generic answers to Beck’s questions about corruption, asking Beck why he didn’t push him further.
“I almost said, ‘I think we could, but you’ve wasted enough of my time, get out,’” said Beck. “I almost threw him out of the studio three times. … What a waste of time this man was!”
Bitterly, Beck expressed hope that he’d helped Massa kill his own credibility. “Now that we spent the hour,” said Beck, “we don’t have to ever pay attention to this man ever again.”
Later in the show, Beck invited on Michelle Malkin — who’d sounded the alarm to conservatives about trusting Massa — and bowed to her foresight.
Even so, (SEE ABOVE) The Politico reports that GOPERs are thinking about how they can use the Massa episode. (TO GOPers in Congress: I’ve boldfaced relevant Beck comments for you. Massa won’t hold much credibility with independent voters since it sounds as if he has been doing CYA even as he reported on Rahm Emanuel’s..)
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Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.