I can't be the only person who sees stories like this:
Rep. Eric Massa (D-N.Y.) will not seek re-election after only one term in office.
According to several House aides – on both sides of the aisle – the House ethics committee has been informed of allegations that Massa, who is married with two children, sexually harassed a male staffer.
...and immediately thinks, "I hope that guy voted against health care reform, and might now flip his vote." Well, it turns out he did vote no. And he's in favor of single-payer:
Massa has played a gadfly-like role in the House, calling for a single-payer health care system at a conference of liberal activists last year despite representing a Republican-leaning district. He was one of 39 House Democrats to vote against health care legislation; he said it didn’t do enough to control costs.
As a freshman representing New York’s most Republican House district, Massa was one of the most endangered Democrats in the delegation. Republicans had been aggressively targeting his seat and landed top recruit Tom Reed, the Republican mayor of Corning, to challenge him.
So while I do feel very badly for the pain inflicted on Massa and his family, this is definitely very good news. The Democrats who votes for reform the first time around are fools to think that they can help themselves by switching to no. But some of them will anyway. Meanwhile, there are a bunch of Democrats in Congress who voted no last year in an attempt to preserve their viability, and have no chance of winning reelection this fall. Massa was one of them, even without this scandal. It's far better for a few of those members to realize it now, and do some good for the country, rather than block healthcare reform in an effort to hang on to their job, and then lose anyway. Having a vote in Congress is an opportunity few people get. Might as well do something with it before you lose it.