Maxine Waters: Swamp Queen
Whatever happened to the Mad Maxine Waters ethics trial? Today’s column answers the question.
Meanwhile, the minority-owned bank Waters lobbied for — OneUnited — is now under scrutiny from the Treasury Department for skipping TARP aid repayments. Mm, mm, mm. Heckuva job, Congresswoman Bank on OneUnited.
Maxine Waters: Swamp Queen
by Michelle Malkin
Creators Syndicate
Copyright 2011
Confirmed: “Drain the swamp” is Washington-speak for “Let it fester.” While House ethics watchdogs dither, it’s shady business as usual for ethics scandal-plagued Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters.
Last summer, the House Ethics Committee charged the entrenched California congresswoman with three violations related to her wheeling and dealing on behalf of minority-owned OneUnited Bank in Los Angeles. The panel accused Waters of bringing discredit to the House for using her influence to seek and secure taxpayer-subsidized special favors for the failing financial institution.
Eight months have passed since the House ethics panel charged Waters. But to date, there has been no action. No trial. No consequences.
Instead, Waters is busy ginning up opposition to GOP budget and entitlement reform, introducing new regulatory crackdowns on the financial industry, and waltzing into political rallies as Aretha Franklin’s “Respect” blares from the loudspeaker. The Swamp Queen has been playing her well-worn race card, stoking class warfare in the “community” and playing populist guardian of the “children, the poor, the disabled and the elderly.”
Mad Maxine may have her “community” duped. But this corporate welfare fixer is just another corruptocrat of a different stripe.
To re-cap: OneUnited Bank received $12 million in federal TARP bailout money after Waters’ office personally intervened and lobbied the Treasury Department in 2008. The minority depository institution was seeking a backdoor government rescue from its reckless decision to squander nearly $52 million of its bank capital on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac preferred stock. Lavish spending by top bank executive Kevin Cohee, who boasted a company-financed Porsche and a Santa Monica, Calif., beachfront mansion, compounded the bank’s problems.
After the federal bailout of Fannie/Freddie, OneUnited’s stock in the government-sponsored enterprises plunged to a value estimated at less than $5 million. Only through Waters’ intervention was OneUnited able to secure an emergency meeting with the Treasury and its then-Secretary Henry Paulson.
The bailout beggars did so under the guise of representing the “National Bankers Association.” But records obtained by congressional investigators showed that OneUnited’s legal counsel, vice president and president (the latter two are married to each other) spearheaded the meeting and its agenda and drafted the talking points/briefing material for Waters.
OneUnited executives had donated $12,500 to Waters’ congressional campaigns. Her husband, Sidney Williams, was an investor in one of the banks that merged into OneUnited. His stock holdings were estimated at $350,000. Waters meddled despite warnings from fellow Democratic Rep. Barney Frank to keep her nose out of the case.
E-mails obtained by public interest legal foundation Judicial Watch and more recently by the Washington Post reveal that federal bank examiners were livid about the intervention of muddied Waters. “There are some really good people expressing very strong opinions regarding what they view as a travesty of justice regarding the special treatment” OneUnited is receiving, acting regional director John M. Lane complained in a March 2009 e-mail to Christopher J. Spoth, a senior FDIC consumer protection official.
On Jan. 13, 2009, Brookly McLaughlin, then-Treasury Department deputy assistant secretary for public affairs, e-mailed her shock at Waters’ apparent conflict of interest regarding OneUnited: “Further to email below, WSJ (Wall Street Journal) tells me: …Apparently this bank is the only one that has gotten money through section 103-6 of the EESA law. And Maxine Waters’ husband is on the board of the bank. ??????”
Another government agency had rapped the bank in October 2008 for “operating without effective underwriting standards and practices,” “operating without an effective loan documentation program” and “engaging in speculative investment practices.”
Tom Fitton, Judicial Watch president, reports that Waters’ friend and fellow California Democratic Rep. Zoe Lofgren helped delay her ethics trial by stalling subpoenas, “doing everything in her power to undermine the professional committee staff leading the investigation,” and improperly firing two attorneys working on the investigation. Now, the GOP is mum on setting a date for the trial. Why?
This much is clear: Mad Maxine Waters’ cronyism of color can’t be whitewashed, no matter how long Washington stalls.
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Isn’t she one of Holder’s people?
They can’t be held accountable, white people haven’t suffered enough, yet.
VA PAtriot…you might want to turn on the news right now.
that Maxine Waters?
Now what happens?
Where are the Rebublicans!?!?!?
They promised so much and that they “got it” this time, but all that is happening is that the people are seeing that it doesn’t matter WHAT the pols say, no matter which party is in control, very little ever changes.
AAAHHHHHH! Not the hideous evil carp again!
The cynic in me thinks the Washington congresscritters are going to quietly allow Waters to get away with it scott-free while hoping no one will notice. Of course since the MSM won’t cover it, that desire will also probably come true.
That swamp isn’t just festering…it’s growing larger and more rancid each and every day.
I’ve seen it chappy. Now all we need is for the Supreme Court to tell us that the Founders did not mean natural born citizen, born here by citizens, that they really intended native born so that any son of a Kenyan Marxist could grow up to be President.
When Barney Franks says you should keep your nose out of something, he probably knows what he’s talking about.
chap, this is what I woke up to this morning
Now we can establish who his father is, and if his father is the person he says is his father he is not qualified to be President
Perfect photo with story, Michelle. She looks as if she has some hopenchange flatulence.
With Holder and the DOJ, his peoples will stay protected.
They did already! Yeah!!! We can all move on!
When? Where?
No, chap, we can’t move on. If it lists a foreign national as his father he is not the President.
And this is as big an issue to secede over as was Lincoln’s election.
This is the pivotal moment in history when Rome either returns to being a republic, or moves on to empire.
Welcome to 44 BC.
Oxymoron. Waters doesn’t have ethics.
The Supreme Court disagrees.
As usual, the GOP has the spine of a jellyfish.
Glad I left.
When and where, chap? And if they disagree with me THEY ARE WRONG
She is untouchable.A master of the lame Democrat talking points,give to the rich,tax the poor,blah,blah,blah.Her slum district (plantation)will vote her in until they lower the box.
Ugh… just realized… this makes Joe Biden President.
We can’t win, anyway. If the Supreme Court suddenly turns honest and asserts that Obama is not qualified to be President, the “black community” and the communist community will riot. We will have civil war and rioting that will make the 60s look tame by comparison. The ball-less wonders in our government will never risk that.
Another “Opposite Day” holiday in the District of Corruption.
No, it makes Weepy the crap sandwich-eating 8th dwarf president.
McCain/Palin
Hey, OK_Loyalist, been wondering bout you. How you doing? I saw on the news how Tulsa is flooding out…
Nothing major over here that I know about.
So the GOP takes over the House and we still can’t get Mad Maxine disciplined? Pelosi had Joe Wilson apologizing (with comity-obsessed Republicans’ approval) within days.
I have cited it many times. And, the interesting thing about the Supreme Court is, it doesn’t matter whether or not you think they are right or wrong. They are the arbiter.
And that “original. long form” birth certificate? It’s that COLB again.
MM said:
Says it all for me? Here’s the problem moving Swamp Queen closer to justice. When you have -billions- tied up bailing out/winding down CountryWide ( we bubble-bloggers called it CountryFried ) and their founder Angelo Mozilo still walking around a free man?
( Kind of makes Mad Maxine’s Adventures In ‘Community’ Banking look like a rounding error? ) Don’t get me wrong, this “cronyism of color” is as nasty/chummy as it gets! But unless and until we can get the CEO’s at Washington Mutual, CountryWide etc. behind bars, Waters walks.
Cite it now or shut up.
And it matters, because I won’t be the only one. And this is an issue that will cause rebellion. The last such rebellion cost 600,000 American lives.
chappy, you know perfectly well that Wong did not decide Presidential eligibility. You’re wong.
Oh, he’s citing WONG? No, Wong did not decide the issue of what “natural born citizen” means.
I stand corrected; welcome to 69 A.D.
I have cited it many, many times. I have no doubt you have come across it before. That or else you are the most uninformed birther out there.
I forget. Whose theory was it that commenters here only used “revolution” in a metaphorical sense? Yeah…not so much.
Just as Obama’s appointment to the White House will make federal elections meaningless events.
First, I am not a “birther”; I have never been concerned with whether or not he was born in Hawaii. My question has always been whether or not he was a natural born citizen of the U.S.
Second, I didn’t say “revolution”. I said “rebellion”.
So? It decided the pertinent question, which is the definition of “natural born.” You have not given me any good reasons why that would not carry over to presidential eligibility.
Apparently you haven’t read the case.
No, Wong decided citizenship, not whether or not a citizen was natural born
One thing this is succeeding in doing, for me, Virginia Patriot, is sort out all the pseudo-conservatives.
Ann Coulter, Mary Katherine Ham, and others, who are derisive of the “birther” issue cannot ever be taken seriously by me again over any other Constitutional issue.
The ONLY way to fix corruption in DC is to take away their mechanism for bribery, which is the tax code! A flat tax of 12% of everything and everyone in america with no exemptions or exceptions collected jointly by sales tax and mail in tax for the wealthy who don’t spend all their income rids lobbyists of the ability to deal, and politicians of the ability to pay their campaign debts with your money. But this must include all churches, hospitals, charities (render unto Ceasar that which is Ceasar’s) as well as all people, organizations, corporations, sick lame and lazy. Essentially this is all Americans finally being treated equally by at least one branch of the gubmint.
Did you read the case? Because the court clearly defined “natural born” within that larger discussion.
Show me? Cite where in the decision they defined “natural born” as being “native born”?
Agreed. I’ll never buy another book any of them write. The founders were very careful with the words they chose. They rejected native born as insufficient. Natural born was chosen as a higher standard. The GOP and the Democrats have made a deal to change the Constitution without benefit of amendemnet and those who approve do not value the Constitution, Supreme Court included.
Trump is already out calling on Obama to release his college records. Apparently, he hasn’t yet caught on that what was released was not the birth certificate but just a more complete COLB. VPat, I’m surprised you haven’t jumped all over that part. William Jacobson at Legal Insurrection was all over it in a flash.
Here is what Obama released this morning. It says “Certificate of Live Birth” at the top.
And in Wong, the Supreme Court was wrong to assert that
Welp, Phil, according to that, he’s not qualified to be President.
I’m afraid De Vattell’s definition of natural born (if that is indeed the framer’s intent) can be interpreted as either parent of an individual. I seriously doubt that dog will hunt.
Rather strange looking long form BC released by White House.
Let the games begin!!
Phil,
I have always maintained that the birth certificate was only useful for establishing paternity. If he is the son of a foreign national, he’s ineligible. The GOP wants to run ineligible candidates as well, that’s why they agreed with the Democrats to change the Constitution with semantic sleight of hand, not by amnedment.
Patterico also doubts this is the birth certificate.
Chap, you might have a point if his *mother* was the foreign national. But, in the good old sexist days of the Founding Fathers, the sire mattered, the dam, not so much.
I’d bet last week’s paycheck he traveled to Pakistan on an Indonesian passport. That would hang him.
Apparently, our hostess is joining the ranks of pseudo-conservatives…
via twitter:
Who cares about his birth certificate? What matters is that HIS HEART IS NOT AMERICAN. He’s here to take the country down. He’s already set for life, so what happens to us doesn’t concern him.
Oil and gas up? Who cares?
Food prices up? Good, we’re too fat.
Inflation up? Good, we have too much money.
America’s prestige down? This is an imperialist country that must be made to pay for its past sins.
And so on, and so on….
John Dunham Obama is one of the parents signed this COLB. Was he not a British citizen? This hardly wraps things up. It just confirms several points without settling whether Obama is constitutionally eligible to be POTUS. In fact, it strongly suggests he isn’t.
The entire political establishment’s obtuseness about this issue reminds me of an old joke that Dick Morris used the other night on Hannity:
“Well other than THAT, what did you think of the play, Mrs. Lincoln?”
Agreed. Talk to some of the old time CPA’s and they’ll tell you the Tax Code has become such a mindfield, one can hardly negotiate each year? What with all the tax credits for breast pumps and whatnot?
The problem w/ Swamp Queen is that she used her pol. connections to secure TARP $’s and to the best of our knowledge ( hasn’t paid it BACK! ) As our “not a crunchy gal” host notes, shame on the Republicans for not pushing this ‘investigation’ to the HILT!
Question: if that’s his birth certificate…
where are his footprints?
HIS FATHER WAS GUILTY OF STATUTORY RAPE!
Oh, wait, got my hopes up. They might have been married before he knocked her up at 17 years of age.
No, it wasn’t. Anyone that has studied law at all knows that English common law is the bedrock foundation for our common law. That is indisputable.
Mason’s quote is blown way out of proportion. He was simply saying that the US is not slavishly beholden to English law when the US is constructing an essentially new government from scratch. He was not saying English common law had no influence. But even if he were, one lone stray voice would not invalidate what is empirical fact.
Wong stated that this definition was the rule in English common law, continued to be AMERICAN common law after the revolution and was still such up to and after the signing of the Constitution. The court did NOT state that because it was English common law, it necessarily had to be the law in the US. But the fact is that it continued to be so, which is neither surprising nor controversial.
Dear Birthers,
Piss off!
Love,
Barack Obama
Why is the father’s full name listed as Barrack Hussein Obama in Box 8 but the parental signature is John Dunham Obama in Box 18a? Legal alias?
Thank you for conceding my point.
How can an Ethics Panel be staffed by unethical, immoral people? Just add this to the list of why ensconced politicians cannot be trusted to police themselves…it’s simply not in their own best interest, which is keeping their jobs, by maintaining power and influence through corruption!
Perhaps a citizen committee (with teeth, and authority) should be formed to handle ethics violations…selected from members of the Tea Party coalition. There are more people involved with those organizations who are qualified to sit in judgement than are apparently, in Congress, don’t you think?
Wow. I was just on another site where someone commented this would be the first absurd question from the birthers.
Here is another Hawaiian birth certificate from WND, posted almost 2 years ago.
Look at it and tell me what it doesn’t have.
Would you all please quit diverting the discussion from the subjection of Maxine Waters, whose ancestors were NIGERIAN. The founding fathers didn’t even consider a full person!! By their definition, she’s not even two thirds of me! For the love of James Madison, the negress must be expelled from office AT ONCE.
Look a little closer.
The signature is (Stanley) Ann Dunham Obama, his mother.
Look closer Phil, that is Ann Dunham’s signature, the mother, she forgot that her legal name was Stanley and added that in after when reminded.
I still wonder when someone reminded Barry Soetoro that his legal name was still Barry Soetoro. When did he change it back?
I concede nothing. Neither I, nor the court in Wong said it was. There is a huge difference between being FORCED to adopt the common law of another country and voluntarily adopting it as your own through normal channels.
Chap, it’s not an absurd question. I have my birth certificate, and my footprints are on the front of it. According to my mother, who was there at the time, my footprints were put on it as soon as I was born.
So where are the footprints? If you say, “Hawaii doesn’t put footprints on their birth certificates”, that’s an acceptable answer if true. But, it’s not absurd to ask. And since someone thought it would be asked, apparently putting footprints on the birth certificate is a common practice. Hardly “absurd”.
Too late, Chap, you already conceded.
Unlike you and your type, WE don’t care about where she came from or her race. What WE care about is that she is – like most every liberal politician – inherently corrupt and incapable of performing the job.
right_on said:
Or… ( Maxine Waters smooching up to Franklin Raines @ 0.38 ) For your entertainment. After all, it’s worked so well? More hilarity in ‘Community Banking’ ensues!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yga7TlsA-1A
It took me 3 seconds to find another contemporary birth certificate from Hawaii that did not contain footprints. Better yet, I did it using a birther source, just to ensure that no one here could impeach THAT certificate as being a fraud too.
It is absurd that you threw out (yet more) thinly veiled accusations as to validity without taking half a minute to do the same.
Natural born is not native born. Citizen is not natural born citizen. They made that distinction clear in the same sentence in the Constitution. The founders chose Natural born as more restrictive and rejected the native born as insufficient. They wanted to insure no divided loyalty. I will never believe that what they really intended was to insure that any son of a Kenyan Marxist who hates the U.S. could grow up to be President.
And Constitutionalists are called crazy….
Whatever you say, Hiraghm. By the way, shouldn’t you be spending this time securing the perimeter or digging trenches or polishing your ammo in preparation for the upcoming rebellion/revolution/exercise in treason/whatever you call it, rather than wasting your time engaging me?
Surely the hour is nigh, because the SC will never, ever take this case.
With five TIMES the Corruption! Look, she’s not only playing as Michelle notes a “well-worn race card” SQ is also banking on the fact there have been -zero- high profile prosecutions of Financial Meltdown Inc. CEO’s at all! See youtube link above for certain laughs!
You’re right, I didn’t bother looking. I didn’t look to see if the sun came up this morning, either. Considering that I, and all my siblings have their footprints on their birth certificates, I took it as a given that that was always the case.
Discussing the matter with my mother, I discovered that she doesn’t have her footprints on her birth certificate, either, because she was born at home.
Again, I don’t question whether he was born in Hawaii. The question has arisen, right here, as to whether that’s the original birth certificate, or a longer version of the CoLB. Footprints would have settled the question. I actually expected someone to say that they were on the back of the document (although mine are on the front).
Someone questioned why his father is listed as Barak Hussein Obama, but the signature is “John Dunham Obama”… but that signature is for “parent or other informant”. Did Obama, Sr have any relatives named John Dunham? It didn’t have to be his father’s signature.
The next time union thugs riot (should be later today) I fully expect and require you to refer to it as “an exercise in treason”.
It is not John, it is (Stanley) Anne Dunham Obama.
Because there is only one party, they just wear to different jerseys to confuse us. It’s time to Whig the GOP.
GOP-RIP
Thanks, I looked at a larger version of it after reading that. So his *mother* signed it?
Yeesh…this was answered twice just here. Again, a 5 second review would have revealed that a. the signature is not “John” in any case and b. that it is clearly his mother’s signature. Obama Sr. did not sign the document at all.
Virginia Patriot, I say, since we’re “nutty” for worrying about the issue of “natural born citizen”, for the 2012 election we run William Windsor for President.
After all, with his upcoming marriage, he’s got a lot of media attention, and is popular across the political spectrum.
Arnold Schwartzenegger can be his running mate.
One of the great fears that arose as we bubble-bloggers covered this debacle was, when it finally -blew- things would be so chaotic, prosecution would be nearly impossible!
This has boiled down to “safety in numbers” ( They can’t put us all in jail? ) Here’s the play-by-play of failed banks:
http://bankimplode.com/
Bite me, I looked at the version on Patterico and it was difficult to make out the typewritten text, let alone the signatures.
You’re familiar with Obama’s mother’s signature then? Where have you examined it before?
( AARP article August 3, 2010 )
Well! That certainly seems to fly in the face of what Michelle is reporting? ( ‘One’ of them is lying..? ) Lol!
Exactly why no one has beeb prosecuted, they’re all dirty.
I’m not going to hold my breath waiting for the LeftStream media to condemn her cronyism of color as what it really is: racism.
First the footprint, then what you thought was an odd discrepancy in the boxes and now an implication that the mom’s signature could be a forgery?
Boy, for someone that claims he doesn’t question Obama was born in Hawaii, you sure do seem to be throwing a lot of crap against the wall to see what might stick.
Let’s make it spaghetti.
Probably right, because if they did, and stayed true to the Constitution, they’d have to find him ineligible. Since they already gave him a pass, they will find him eligible to cover their own cowardice.
BK said:
Corp./Retail Homepage:
https://www.oneunited.com/
With Branches in CA, FL and MA! ( Actually they’re hdqtrd. in Mass ) What needs to be said is that, there ‘may’ have been a time when minorities needed to set up their OWN banks, but w/ all the “Community Re-Investment” type legislation, Truth In Lending etc. their era has long since come and gone!
Making this all a sham. Translation? Affinity Fraud + Slush Fund. For added laughs see their “Self-Dealing Disclaimer” under ‘Ethics’. And of course no mention they’re under investigation for… Ethics? Har-dee-har. Golly, ‘I’ worked for banks for years and never got a Porsche out of the deal ( let alone a beachfront mansion? )
https://www.oneunited.com/about-us/code-of-ethics/
From BankImplode-O-Meter:
Jindal/Rubio 2012!
Ooops! Their Federal Financial Institution Examination Council ( FFIEC ) or “Call Reports” mysteriously drop off a cliff after 2004?
Just a minor oversight I’m sure.
https://www.oneunited.com/about-us/company-profile/financial-performance/call-reports/
Groovy. I don’t think either will be ready or want to run until 2016.
But I’d support ‘em if they changed their minds.