Starring Maxine Waters

Maxine Waters (D-CA) has been my favorite member of the House of Representative for a long time. This is not because of her politics (because, of course, she's a leftist loon). But, rather, because of the entrainment value that she gives to our great nation. Normally, this type of entertainment costs north of $100 per show in Las Vegas, but we get to watch Maxine for free.

Who can forget her act in which she accused the CIA of selling drugs in Los Angeles' black community so that the government could purposefully turn black people into drug addicts. Recently, my good friend and noted journalist, Bethany McLean, had the pleasure of appearing on Meet the Press the same Sunday as Maxine (although they were on different segments). I asked Bethany to ask Rep. Waters if now that Barack has been elected President, she believes that the CIA's drug dealing days are over. To the best of my knowledge, Maxine never answered that question.

Then, of course, there was her excellent performance on local Los Angeles television during the 1992 LA riots. Maxine had the one liners going for sure that night. She said, "If you call it a riot it sounds like it was just a bunch of crazy people who went out and did bad things for no reason. I maintain it was somewhat understandable, if not acceptable. So I call it a rebellion." No wonder ever since that day I've always felt the urge to break the front window of the local Best Buy every time my favorite sports team wins a big game. Nothing like a big screen flat panel TV to add to the enjoyment of a big victory!

Of course, Maxine isn't afraid to cover the classic hits as well. You know, the old stand by of Bush lied, people died. Bush and Cheney and their friends made millions off of the war in Iraq. Wow, falsely accusing public officials of profiting from government payments, someone like Maxine would never do that, right?

Wrong! We now find out that Maxine pressured the Treasury Department to send TARP funds to a bank in which her husband has (and she previously had) a financial interest. At the same time that Ms. Waters was browbeating the CEOs of several major banks and referring to them as "captains of the universe", she was using her political influence for personal financial gain. OneUnited Bank, a bank in which her husband is a stockholder and a member of its board of directors, received $12,000,000 in TARP funds. Also, the executives of OneUnited have donated $12,500 to Maxine's congressional campaign fund.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Rep. Water, and Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA), participated directly in pressuring the Treasury Department to give TARP funds to OneUnited. During her contacts with the Treasury about the bailout for OneUnited, Maxine seemed to have forgotten to mention her financial interests in the bank. Oh well, anyone can forget a line or two during any performance.

It wouldn't paint the complete picture if I failed to mention that OneUnited was penalized by the FDIC for excessive executive compensation. The bank was ordered to sell all bank owned cars and to cease payments on a $6,000,000 Santa Monica beachfront home purchased by the bank's CEO. Maybe that guy is a captain of the universe too?

The talk around Washington is that Maxine is in line to become the next chairman of the House Banking Committee. I can't wait for that. That will be like Maxine starring in own sitcom.