WASHINGTON — The White House and the House Democratic leader today furiously denied former

Rep. Eric J.J. Massa's allegations that Democratic leaders pushed him out of office to help

pass health care reform.

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, on "Good Morning America," dismissed what he

called "crazy allegations" from the Southern Tier lawmaker who left office Monday.

"I think this whole story is ridiculous," Gibbs said. "I think the latest excuse is silly

and ridiculous."

And House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., told reporters today that Massa's charges

were "absurd" and "absolutely untrue."

Offering his third explanation in five days why he was leaving office, Massa, D-Corning,

said Sunday on a Hornell radio station that he was "set up" to fall so that House Democrats

would have an easier path to passing health care reform.

"Mine is now the deciding vote on the health care bill," said Massa, who consistently has

opposed the Democratic health plan. "And this administration and this House leadership have

said -- quote, unquote -- 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."

Politics Now blog: Reed gains, Hogan out as Massa successors

But Gibbs noted that Massa had offered several different explanations for why he decided to

leave office -- including acknowledging that he did not want to face a House ethics committee

investigation of lewd comments he made to a male aide.

"I think clearly his actions appear to be in the appropriate venue in the ethics

committee," Gibbs said.

Massa made the allegation about being forced out of office during a radio diatribe on

WKPQ-FM on Sunday. The diatribe could continue later today as the former congressman, once a

darling of left-wing bloggers and a regular guest on MSNBC, takes his story to "The Glenn Beck

Program" on Fox News and Larry King Live on CNN.

His Hornell radio appearance continued to be the talk of the nation's capital today, in

part because he detailed the lewd comment to a male aide at a wedding reception: "What I

really ought to be doing is ... you."

Reports of that remark had set off a House ethics investigation of him last month.

The broadcast also included Massa's saucy descriptions of everything from Rahm Emanuel, the

White House chief of staff — whom Massa identified as the "son of the devil's spawn"

— to life in the Navy.

Most notably, though, the radio show served as a vehicle for Massa to offer a third theory

behind his political demise.

Massa initially said Wednesday he would not run for re-election because of a "major cancer

recurrence scare." Two days later, Massa, a survivor of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, admitted he

did not know for sure if his cancer had returned and said he would resign because of that

ethics investigation.

Sunday, however, Massa said politics, not his inappropriate comment, led to a move to force

him from office.

"You think that somehow they didn't come after me to get rid of me because my vote is the

deciding vote in the health care bill?" Massa said. "Then, ladies and gentlemen, you live

today in a world that is so innocent as to not understand what's going on in Washington, D.C."

Because of Massa's departure, the number of House votes needed to pass the health bill fell

by one, to 216. And the vote is expected to be so close that a single vote could make a

difference.

"Now they've gotten rid of me, and it will pass," Massa, 50, said.

With such comments, the one-term lawmaker made himself the lead story on the right-leaning

"Drudge Report" for much of Monday. Radio host Rush Limbaugh — whom Massa once called "a

coward and a phony" — repeated Massa's comments as if he knew they were true.

Less noticed, though, were Massa's comments about that wedding reception and other

encounters he described on the radio show.

At that New Year's Eve wedding, after "I don't know, 15 gin and tonics and goodness only

knows how many bottles of champagne, a staff member made an intonation to me that maybe I

should be chasing after the bridesmaid," Massa said. "His points were clear, and his words

were far more colorful than that."

"And I grabbed the staff member sitting next to me and I said, "What I really ought to be

doing is ... you,' and then tousled the guy's hair and left, went to my room, because I knew

the party was getting to a point where I shouldn't be there," he added. "Was that

inappropriate of me? Absolutely."

Massa also described an unusual encounter with Emanuel in the locker room of the House gym

early last year.

"I'm sitting there showering, naked as a jaybird, and here comes Rahm Emanuel not even with

a towel ... poking his finger in my chest, yelling at me because I wasn't going to vote for

the president's budget," Massa said. "Do you know how awkward it is to have a political

argument with a naked man?"

Massa later went on to describe President Obama's top aide not only as "son of the devil's

spawn," but as "an individual who would sell his mother to get a vote. He would strap his

children to the front end of a steam locomotive."

Emanuel did not respond to an e-mail seeking comment, but Democratic politicians back home

in Western New York derided Massa's remarks.

"Nobody can make you resign," said Rep. Brian Higgins, D-Buffalo, who dubbed Massa's

comments about health care "a conspiracy theory" and noted the inconsistencies in Massa's

explanations of his downfall.

Hornell Mayor Shawn D. Hogan, chairman of the Steuben County Democratic Party, went even

further, citing Massa's "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" behavior. "He's trying to do as much damage

as he can to the Democratic Party before he goes quietly into the night," Hogan said. "He's

being hypocritical, and I hope he gets the help he needs."

Also on the radio show, Massa:

Accused Hoyer of "lying" in a statement in which the majority leader's office said

Hoyer would have contacted the ethics committee about the allegations against Massa if Massa's

staff had not done so itself.

Recounted a recent incident where he "drank about a six-pack in an hour" and later

found himself accused of "walking while intoxicated."

Recalled that he spent "48 hours without speaking a word to anybody" as his

political career collapsed last week, saying he spent that time "staring at the wall."

Said he would not consider rescinding his resignation or returning to politics

unless his theory about a Democratic plot to get him to leave Congress became a matter of

national media attention.

"Otherwise," he said, "people are just going to say I'm a crazy guy."

News Political Reporter Robert J. McCarthy contributed to this story.