Massa
by digby
I don't want to write about Eric Massa but I guess I have to. I've met the guy a couple of times and admired his strong position on DADT and the wars in raq and Afghanistan. I assumed his opposition to health care reform (for not being liberal enough) was a way to thread the needle in his conservative district. I'm not sure how well that works, but I probably prefer it to having "no" voters use conservative talking points. I actually assumed he was one who might be persuaded to change his vote in the final days.
But that's all I know except for the fact that he was from a military family, as I am, served in the Navy for decades and seemed to be something of an eccentric iconoclast.
Now he's in the public eye having a very messy, very personal meltdown. In fact, his actions seem to me to be the work of a very troubled man who is in a lot of emotional pain. I certainly don't endorse his behavior if it's true. But I do have sympathy for someone who has to endure such a personal journey in front of the entire world, especially as he hasn't, as so many do, allowed his own confusion and self-loathing to deny others the equality they deserve.
So, I'll leave it to others to excoriate him for his erratic and self-destructive behavior. I just don't have the stomach for it. Howie Klein wrote a moving essay on this today that you might want to read. No excuses. But understanding.
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