NEW CONCEPTS IN TICKLING – AT 7:55 P.M. ET:  Don't laugh.  We're very serious here.  The issue of tickling as a legal concept is new, but may have profound implications in the future of our country.  Consider this, from The New York Times:

Representative Eric J. Massa, who resigned from Congress amid allegations of sexual misconduct, vehemently denied any wrongdoing during a television appearance on Tuesday even as he described having tickle fights with staffers in a house they shared.

But he insisted that was as far as it went.

“No, no, no!’’ he said when asked during an interview with Fox’s Glenn Beck. “I did nothing sexual.’’

Mr. Massa made the comments amid new reports that the House Ethics Committee is investigating allegations that he groped several male aides in his office.

A man can't even tickle an aide without being smeared.

In the interview with Mr. Beck, Mr. Massa acknowledged exercising poor judgment in his interactions with his staff on another occasion. He recalled tickling an aide during a birthday party in a townhouse he shared with five of his staff members.

“Now they are saying I groped a male staffer,’’ he told Mr. Beck. “Yeah I did. Not only did I grope him. I tickled him until he couldn’t breathe and then four guys jumped on top of me. It was my 50th birthday. It was kill the old guy. You can take anything out of context.’’

Who among us hasn't tickled to excess?  Honestly now.  Is this what our country is coming to?  With all the real killers out there?

Mr. Massa, who is married, explained that he and his aides — “all bachelors’’ – lived together because they could not afford Washington’s “outrageous rents.’’

“I should not have allowed myself to become so familiar with my staff,’’ he said.

COMMENT:  Yeah.

March 9, 2010