So I went through the archives to help remind everyone just how many silly things the conservative press got all worked up about in the year 2010. (With a couple big items left out. Everyone stopped talking about the "Ground Zero Mosque" once summer ended, but it's hardly been completely forgotten.)

Harry Reid said "Negro"

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Before the tickling thing ever came to light, Massa had a bombshell story for the Esquire editors: Dick Cheney and General David Petraeus were planning a military coup! Sort of.

According to Massa's grand conspiracy, retired generals were telling him that Petraeus secretly met with Dick Cheney twice about running for president in 2012. Massa thought this was full-blown treason:

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In a statement released Saturday by his attorney on the campaign's behalf, the New York Democrat said the check to Joe Racalto was "based solely on misrepresentations" by Racalto to campaign officials.

Racalto is among those pursuing sexual harassment complaints against Massa.

Racalto's lawyer, Camilla McKinney, said Friday the check was a "deferred payment" for Racalto's work this year and last on the congressman's 2010 re-election campaign and for work on Massa's 2008 transition.

The payment to Racalto came as allegations about his boss sexually harassing young male staffers in his office were becoming public.

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Although he was forced to step down from the chairmanship of the Republican Policy Committee, few in the party leadership have criticized him or called for him to resign, even as the emerging story of Ensign's alleged financial and professional payoffs to his former lover and her family have raised questions of criminal misconduct.

The Justice Department began to probe those payoffs not long after initial reports that Ensign's parents -- wealthy owners of a casino resort in Nevada -- had given at least $96,000 to the former aide, Doug Hampton, and his wife. What the Ensigns called a "gift" might be viewed as something else by federal authorities.

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"Now, they're saying I groped a male staffer," the former Democratic representative from upstate New York told Glenn Beck on Tuesday. "Yes, I did. Not only did I grope him, I tickled him until he couldn't breathe, and four guys jumped on top of me. It was my 50th birthday." Ah, that explains it all! It was, in the annals of weird political confessions, a new one.

Massa's interview with Beck was a hideous mix of self-flagellation, combativeness, dark conspiracy theories and awkward segues. On both sides. Once he heard Massa's rant on a local radio station over the weekend, blaming White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel for all that is evil in the world, Beck simply had to put the guy on TV. Why bother doing any research ahead of time? The hour that followed proved that the two of them deserved each other; Beck tried to bait Massa into saying something -- anything -- inflammatory, and Massa tried to get Beck to look at photos of a tickle-heavy Navy ritual that Beck described as "like an orgy in Caligula."

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Instigated by Minority Leader John Boehner, the renewed probe is meant to restore, in his words, the “broken bonds of trust” between Congress and the American people. So far, of course, there is no evidence that anyone in the congressional leadership violated that trust regarding Massa’s misconduct. But the ethics committee will have ample opportunity to uncover and examine any such evidence between now and the deadline for its report on June 30.

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But recent history suggests they shouldn’t get too excited.

Believe it or not, it’s been almost nine years since the GOP picked up a previously Democratic-held House seat through a special election. Democrats, by contrast, have won six GOP-held seats in special elections in that time. And it’s not as if the Democrats were picking off low-hanging fruit: All but one of those victories came in districts that vote reliably for Republicans at the presidential level.

There are several reasons for the Democrats’ special election success. The most obvious is that many of the pickups came when George W. Bush’s popularity was at its lowest and voters were eager to take out their frustrations on Republican candidates.

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On Thursday afternoon, the House voted overwhelmingly in favor of opening an investigation into what Democratic leaders and staffers knew about harassment allegations against Massa. House Minority Leader John Boehner had introduced the resolution that calls for the investigation not long before.

The vote went 404-2 in favor of the bill; the no votes came, oddly enough, from Republicans, Reps. Timothy Johson and Dana Rohrabacher.

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"I should have never allowed myself to be as familiar with my staff as I was. I never translated from my days in the Navy to being a congressman," Massa said. Then he pulled out a photo of a "crossing the line" ceremony, and compared the scene to "an orgy in Caligula."

Less than 24 hours later, the Atlantic's Joshua Green reported on allegations of sexual harassment against Massa from his days in the Navy. These new details fit the pattern of the allegations that led to the congressman's decision to resign from the House.

"Massa was notorious for making unwanted advances toward subordinates," Green reports. He goes on to recount stories of Massa giving other men what he called "Massa Massages," of Massa "groping" a sleeping subordinate, of a shipmate of Massa's waking up "to Massa undoing his pants trying to snorkel him."

Green also reports that the House ethics committee was notified of the congressman's behavior during his Navy days shortly before he decided to resign.

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"I almost said ... you've wasted enough of my time, get out. I almost said that. I almost threw him out of the studio like three times," Beck said.

Later, Beck tried to spin the whole debacle as a positive, saying, "Now that we've spent the hour, we don't ever have to pay attention to this man ever again."

That's true, though of course if Beck had done his work in advance and not been so quick to leap on what he thought was a story that would advance his anti-Obama narrative, he wouldn't have had to spend the hour in the first place.

Audio below, via Michael Calderone.

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Who is this guy? Stop! Stop. I want to change the show. This needs to be our lead tonight at 5:00 and get this guy on. I don't have, I don't have guests on. We just don't and we certainly don't lead with a guest. This guy is the guy we've been looking for!

Beck had very little idea who Massa was or what he wanted to talk about. He simply wasn't prepared for the interview -- he just knew that the former congressman had said some things that tended to support his worldview.

This is where we really see the limits of an approach like Beck's. His schtick -- former wacky morning DJ turns guy who's singlehandedly saving America by exposing what they don't want you to know -- works fine when it doesn't involve actual knowledge or reporting. Once he needs that, though, things can fall apart very quickly.

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The Post reports that Massa "has been under investigation for allegations that he groped multiple male staffers working in his office." These allegations go back at least a year, the paper says -- that is, back to just about the time when Massa began serving in Congress -- and are about "a pattern of behavior and physical harassment," the Post quotes an unnamed source as saying. Ron Hikel, Massa's former deputy chief of staff, reportedly told the House ethics committee about the allegations three weeks ago.

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Rep. Eric Massa, D-N.Y., will be Beck's guest for a full hour of television, the host announced on Twitter Monday. "I just spoke with him off air," Beck wrote. "All Americans need To (sic) hear him."

The conspiracy theory Massa advanced this past weekend is likely what drew conspiracy lover Beck's attention. In a radio interview, Massa claimed that the reason the House ethics committee is investigating allegations that he sexually harrassed a male staffer -- indeed, the reason he ultimately decided to resign from Congress -- is that Democratic leaders want him gone because he was a "no" vote on healthcare.

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Massa is leaving the House of Representatives Monday afternoon, after serving less than one full term, because of allegations that he sexually harassed a male staffer. Many congressman would try to head silently for the exit in a situation like that -- but apparently not Massa.

On Sunday, Massa told a radio station in New York that he's been railroaded out of office because he voted against the House healthcare reform bill last fall.

“Mine is now the deciding vote on the health care bill, and this administration and this House leadership have said,'they will stop at nothing to pass this health care bill, and now they’ve gotten rid of me and it will pass. You connect the dots," Massa said. "I was set up for this from the very, very beginning."

He also specifically went after White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, a favorite target for liberals these days.

"Rahm Emanuel is son of the devil’s spawn... He is an individual who would sell his mother to get a vote," Massa said.

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Though Massa maintained that his decision was motivated by concern for his health -- he's had cancer, and he told reporters Wednesday that he had a cancer scare late last year -- he's also been hit by allegations that he sexually harassed a male staffer. That allegation is being investigated by the House ethics committee.

The really big news out of Massa's resignation, though, may be about healthcare reform. His leaving the House means that Speaker Nancy Pelosi only needs to round up 216 votes, not 217, in order to get it passed.

Update: Massa's written an open letter about his resignation that's now up on his Congressional Web site. It gives the harassment allegation as the reason for his decision to step down, though he still says that his health was the reason he decided not to run again.

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Massa is slated to hold a conference call with reporters to talk about the decision later Wednesday afternoon, but early reports suggest it could be health related. In the 1990's, while serving as special assistant to Gen. Wes Clark, then supreme allied commander of NATO, Massa was diagnosed with terminal cancer; after treatment, however, the cancer was reportedly in remission. However, the New York Daily News has unnamed "sources close to the congressman" talking about a possible ethics investigation.

The retirement would seem to give Republicans, who'd been targeting the seat anyway, a good opportunity for a pickup. The district leans to the GOP, and Massa won a close race in 2008, beating incumbent Republican Randy Kuhl by just 5,000 votes. Two years before that, Kuhl beaten Massa by 6,000 votes.

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