....And Maxine Waters Is Ethically Challenged, Too

With all the recent attention on corrupt Charlie Rangel, California's differently, but equally corrupt Democratic Representative, Maxine Waters' behavior has almost gone unnoticed.

Here's a passage from a recent Washington Post column,

"Which gets to my favorite part of the ethics report on Waters. Fast-forward a few months after Rangel's meeting with AIG, to the first weeks of September 2008. This was, to put it mildly, a rather busy time for then-Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson. The economy was tanking. Lehman Brothers was about to go down. But when a senior member of the Financial Services Committee calls, the Treasury secretary tends to listen.

Waters said she had "some people in town who were important to her," Paulson recalled, and asked for a meeting with Treasury officials to discuss their concerns.

How important to her? As Waters told the Office of Congressional Ethics, which conducted the preliminary investigation of her activities, "You don't use your chits for nothing. You call when there is an important issue."

The issue broadly involved the government takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and its impact on minority-owned banks. But when Paulson's aides got to the meeting, they discovered that all but one of the banking industry participants were from one such institution: OneUnited.

On whose board Waters's husband had served until a few months earlier. In which he continued to have investments worth $500,000 to $1 million. A fact Waters somehow neglected to mention to Paulson -- although she was most certainly aware of it. As the report notes, Waters mentioned to Congressman A -- better known as Massachusetts Democrat Barney Frank -- that "Sydney's been on the board." Frank twice advised Waters to "stay out of it."

The obvious question is: What is wrong with these people? The tempting answer: They're members of Congress."

You know someone is dense and stupid when even Barney Frank knows better than they do. Look at Waters' attitude- her "chits" are only for important usages. Hey, how about forgetting your own personal, corrupt uses of your legislative position, and think about the voters who sent you there?

Hopefully, the idiotic Waters will have the book thrown at her. But, with a liberal Democratic House majority, and a fellow Californian as Speaker, don't hold your breath. And one doubts even Waters' constituents have the sense or backbone to throw her out.