Maxine Waters Helped Bank Whose Stock She Once Owned

[bijou]

WASHINGTON -- When Rep. Barney Frank was looking to aid a Boston-based lender last fall, the Massachusetts Democrat urged Maxine Waters, a colleague on the House Financial Services Committee, to "stay out of it," he says.

The reason: Ms. Waters, a longtime congresswoman from California, had close ties to the minority-owned institution, OneUnited Bank.

Ms. Waters and her husband have both held financial stakes in the bank. Until recently, her husband was a director. At the same time, Ms. Waters has publicly boosted OneUnited's executives and criticized its government regulators during congressional hearings. Last fall, she helped secure the bank a meeting with Treasury officials.

Her involvement isn't new. Ms. Waters has detailed her financial ties in a series of federal disclosure forms and has been vocal in public in support of the bank. Those ties, however, have received little public attention. Nor is it well known how the influential lawmaker has over the years acted to support the bank and its executives.

Such potential conflicts of interest are more serious as the banking system's crisis has led the government to take an increasingly active role in overseeing financial institutions, including OneUnited. The financial-services committee on which Ms. Waters sits oversees banking issues, and the lawmaker is a potential future chairman....

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123682571772404053.html

[Eupher]

This, and any other revelation involving a Democrat, a Republican, or an Independent politician, does not surprise me in the slightest.

I think it's fair to say that most of the congresscritters - particularly those who have been around for a couple-three elections or so - are going to be tainted in this way or another if exposed to even a modicum of scrutiny.

The temptation is too great and the selfishness is too rampant.

Congressional ethics laws, policies, and mandates are a joke.

Term limits, anyone? At least in that sense, the critters have to develop the expected arrogance, narcissism, and selfishiness before actually acting on it.

[Lord Undies]

In October, regulators demanded that OneUnited raise fresh capital and name an independent board. The bank was ordered to stop paying for a Porsche used by one of its executives and its chairman's $6.4 million beachfront home in Pacific Palisades, Calif., a luxury enclave between Malibu and Santa Monica.

I don't think this was the outcome Maxine "Bridge Over Troubled" Waters would approve.

Boy-oh-boy, we are all being taken for fools.  

[NHSparky]

Why she never got charged with incitement to riot in the 1992 LA riots, I'll never know.  Bitch was all over the television screaming, "No justice, no peace!" and she doesn't think that got people off the couch and in the streets?

She's about as deep as a driveway puddle, and duller than a bowling ball.