The controversy surrounding the accusations and resignation of Rep. Eric Massa (D-NY) is a bit bizarre. When he lashed out at the administration, and particularly chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, it was viewed as a peek beneath the veil of Washington inside baseball.

It’s a veil few have the stomach to look beneath. Regardless, Massa’s comments were seized upon as proof of what has been said all along about the administrations tactics to do anything necessary to pass ObamaCare.

Is Massa telling the truth? I don’t know. It seems plausible. It certainly seems to fit the matrix of what the administration has done in the past to twist arms and pressure members of Congress to pass its bill.

But I do know Massa took heat last summer when his meeting with a group of liberal bloggers was recorded and put on YouTube.

Massa: So what happens at my town hall meetings, frankly, is important, because I’m in one of the most right-wing, Republican districts in the country. And I’m not asking you guys to go back to wherever and send people to me, this is a generic statement about ‘what can I do?’ Well, that’s one thing we can do.

Blogger: So if we got your meetings to 60/40 and there was single payer in a bill, you’d vote for it?

Massa: Oh absolutely, I’d vote for single payer.


Blogger: If it was 60/40 sentiment in the room…

Massa: Listen, I tell every audience I’m in favor of single payer…

Blogger: So it there was still 80/20 in the room…

Massa: If there was a single payer bill?

Blogger: If there was a single payer bill…

Massa: I will vote for the single payer bill.

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Now, I’m no prosecutor, but this exchange certainly does not seem to jive with what Massa has said in recent days. Just Monday, he said:

The entire nation has said let’s re-write the health care bill, let’s find what we can agree upon. No, no, no, no. We’re going to ram this down the throats of the American people and anyone who stands in the way of doing that is going to be smeared, and they are going to be kicked out of Congress.

But in that same exchange with the bloggers, Massa also said:

I will vote adamantly against the interest of my district if I actually think what I am doing is going to help them. … I will vote against their opinion if I actually believe it will help them.

So, acting as an amateur prosecutor, I ask Rep. Massa, were you telling the truth then or are you telling the truth now? I’d like to believe you – I want to believe you – and your accusations against the Obama administration but something just doesn’t smell right.