Behind the scenes: How Capitol Hill enabled Eric Massa

Aides reported seeing him pour booze into a coffee cup in the morning, and in the evenings he was allegedly sometimes so drunk that he couldn’t tell his aides where he was so that they could pick him up. But outside his fiercely protective top staff, his predatory actions appear to have been largely unknown. He reportedly had a reputation as a demanding and unreliable member of the Democratic caucus, insisting on legislative favors for his district and then withholding his vote on key bills dealing with issues like health-care reform and energy. Members of the Democratic leadership, which is responsible for disciplining its members, maintain they knew very little about Massa’s not-so-secret life…

It’s reasonable to assume that some people outside Massa’s inner circle knew that he’d gone off the rails, but each member’s office is a fiefdom, revolving around and reflecting the wishes of the elected official. There are thousands of résumés for every slot, and the young people fortunate enough to land a job or an internship are worked mercilessly hard and are willing to do almost anything to get ahead. It’s an environment ripe for exploitation.

After Massa allegedly solicited sex from a bartender at a funeral service for a young Marine killed in Afghanistan and the incident was reported on a blog, Massa’s deputy chief of staff, Ron Hickel, new to the staff and presumably freshly outraged, called Majority Leader Steny Hoyer’s office to report it along with a string of other allegations. An ultimatum was issued: report everything to the House ethics committee within 48 hours or Hoyer would.