The Star-Gazette has coverage of Massa's press conference. Massa's not backing down:
I stand by my words. My politics, when it comes to being independent, come from people like Amo Houghton and, frankly, Ronald Regan [sic] and Franklin Roosevelt.
Reader Tom tells me that Massa was on the Brother Wease radio program this morning. Rochester's Channel 10 also covered the story yesterday.
Comments
Eric..trying to brazen this out won't work.
The video is far, far too damaging.
Time to grovel, plead and beg for forgiveness..but being brazen will only reinforce the image of arroagnce..and that is the LAST thing a member of this congress dares do.
Right, Tom. Beg for forgiveness from the libertarians, conservatives and brain-washed Republicans in the district. Abandon those who believe with him that a public option and cost controls are key to health care reform. Then everyone will love and support him. Stands to reason.
It has yet to be established that a majority of the district opposes Massa's position on single payer. So, your contention that he's being arrogant and ignoring the views of the district on this point is an open issue. A very vocal minority opposes single payer, but in the only poll that matters -- the last one happened in November, 2008 -- a majority of voters supported a candidate whose support for single payer was clear and unequivocal.
This is a represetative democracy - Massa was elected to represent us as he thinks best - not to poll us on every issue
IDK, when I read the comments on the S-G piece I'm glad that we don't have a true democracy. I tend to think that a representative should represent our best interests, not our moods. There is some substance in the comments, but most of it was venting about our loss of "liberty" which coincidentally is what the GOP and its allies are pushing right now.
And as Rotten says, there is no evidence that the majority of voters in the district disagree with Massa on the issues, but even if they do, his job is to do a complete analysis of complex issues and do his best to serve us. If they don't like his representation in November '10, he will know it.
(Which, of course, is what Elmer just said, only more concisely.) Sorry about that.