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FORMER REP. ERIC MASSA CALL'S GROPING PLOY "TICKLING"

By Synthia Esther

Tuesday March 9, 2010

Resource:

Andrew Miga, Associated Press Writer

The Washington Post

Citing anonymous sources, The Washington Post reported former Rep. Eric Massa, who resigned from Congress after sexual harassment allegations, admitted he groped a staffer, but described his actions as "tickling."   Massa also admitted on conservative Fox News - Glen Beck's show, "It doesn't make any difference what my intentions were, it's how it's perceived by the individual who receives that action.  I'm telling you I was wrong.  I was wrong...My behavior was wrong.  I should have never allowed myself to be as familiar with my staff as I was."  When asked directly on Glen Beck's show whether he sexually goped anyone, Massa replied: "No, no, no."  

GROPING AND TICKLING DEFINED:

• Groping is defined by the Merriam Webster dictionary as "to feel one's way."  
• While tickling being defined as, "to touch (as a body part) lightly so as to excite the surface nerves and cause uneasiness, laughter, or spasmodic movements."  

So who cares what Massa decides to call his actions... it is like former president Clinton stating, "I did not have sex with this woman." 

 Massa did recall "Tickling a Staffer" at a birthday party, and that his actions may have been misinterpreted.  "If somebody on my staff was offened. uncomftable, thought I was inappropriate, I won that.  It's why I resigned," Massa said.  "I wasn't forced out," he said.  "I forced myself out."  Massa, 50, is married, and a former 24 - year Navy commander.  He was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphomia in 1996.  Massa stated concerning his actions, that he did not live up to his own personal code of conduct.  Yet did not call his "tickling a staffer" sexual conduct.  Nor was Bill Clinton forced out of the White House.   Power does not equal justice now does it?  

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