Posted on 03/14/2009 3:06:54 PM PDT by BenLurkin
The possible conflict involving OneUnited Bank is just the latest example of her seeming inability to distinguish her family interests from her public obligations.
Dating back to her days in the Assembly ... she also has shown a disturbing inability to adequately distinguish her family's interests from those of the public.
Ostensibly, the bankers wanted to talk because their institutions had been hard hit by the implosion of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. According to the New York Times, though, Kevin Cohee -- chief executive of OneUnited Bank -- took the opportunity to plead for a $50-million bailout of his institution.
Officials told both papers that they were even more taken aback when they discovered that Waters' husband, Sidney Williams -- a U.S. ambassador to the Bahamas under President Clinton -- was a former director of One- United Bank, that she herself had once owned as much as $500,000 worth of its stock and that her husband still holds two blocks of its securities, each valued somewhere between $250,000 and $500,000. Waters had arranged the meetings without disclosing any of these facts.
OneUnited was one of the first minority-owned institutions to receive bailout money -- $12 million -- from the feds' Troubled Asset Relief Program. This despite the fact that less than six months ago, the FDIC sanctioned the bank for "unsafe or unsound banking practices," including Cohee's excessive compensation, which covered the cost of his 2008 Porsche SUV and the maintenance on his $6.4-million ocean-view compound in Pacific Palisades. OneUnited has a pretty good record of lending in L.A. minority communities -- the usual rationale for promoting minority bank ownership -- but a spotty one in Massachusetts and Florida.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
This last time around, she raised $777,231 -- mostly from groups with business before her committees -- while her Republican rival, Ted Hayes, amassed just $13,227.
Protected type.Nothing to see here.Move along.
Henry Waxman’s plate is so full with investigating Republicans, he will just never get around to investigating Ms. Waters and that’s just a shame. Ms. Waters and the Black Caucus. Ms. Waters and Haiti, umm,umm, there is just so much to tell...........
Wow, the LA Times
Under the bus?
thankfully this is a “no pictures” thread...
Maxine has come a long way from being a volunteer headstard coordinator. Even Wikipedia isn’t very flattering. Talk about wearing a tinfoil hat:
Nationalizing the United States’ petroleum industry
In May 2008, Waters told Shell Oil President John Hofmeister at the House Judiciary Committee’s Task Force on Competition Policy and Antitrust Laws, that if he did not guarantee reduced gasoline prices in exchange for Congress allowing the oil industry to drill where it wished, she would favor nationalizing American petroleum companies. In a widely reported exchange, she stated: “Guess what this liberal will be all about, this liberal will be all about socializing....taking over and the government running all of your companies.”[16]
[edit] Controversies
[edit] CREW “Most Corrupt” list
Waters was included by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (”CREW”) among its 2005 list of the thirteen “Most Corrupt Members of Congress” list[17] and on the 2006 list[18] for “her exercise of this power to financially benefit her daughter, husband and son.” She was not included on subsequent lists.[19][20][21]
[edit] Opposed KTLA license renewal
After the Los Angeles Times published allegations of nepotism against her and an expose of the King Drew Medical Center, Waters asked the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to deny a waiver of the crossownership ban, and hence license renewal, for KTLA-TV, a station the newspaper owned. Claiming that “The Los Angeles Times has had an inordinate effect on public opinion and has used it to harm the local community in specific instances,” Waters requested that the FCC force the paper to either sell its station or risk losing that station’s broadcast rights.[22] Such challenges, according to Broadcasting & Cable, “raise the specter of costly legal battles to defend station holdings. ... At a minimum, defending against one would cost tens of thousands of dollars in lawyers’ fees and probably delay license renewal about three months.”[23] Waters’ petition was ultimately unsuccessful; the station’s license next expires in 2014.[24]
[edit] Los Angeles riots of 1992
During the Los Angeles riots of 1992, Waters appeared on television as a commentator. In defense of the people that looted stores and damaged property, Waters 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.”[25]
[edit] Stock Ownership of OneUnited Bank
Miss Waters arranged meetings with U.S. Treasury Department officials (in September, 2008) for OneUnited Bank to plead for federal cash. It had been heavily invested in Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, and its capital was “all but wiped out” after the U.S. government took them over. Her husband is a stockholder (more than $250,000 as of May 2008) and former director of the bank. The bank’s executives were major contributors to her campaigns. Rep. Barney Frank counseled her against participating in the matter. The bank has its headquarters in Boston, Massachusetts, and offices in Los Angeles and Miami. It did secure $12 million in TARP mone
Don’t even have to read the article to know that she is racist. Will Steele say that? NO! So, get rid of Steele. Easier to get rid of him, rather than her. Bottom line. No balls from the RNC.
This POS needs to go.
She is illiterate that can hardly speak English besides being blatantly Racist and a Communist lackey how could she help anyone except maybe a crack dealer?
She needs to go but just like Burris in the senate, because she is black, Jefferson, rangle, are black no body touches them because they are cowards,
That has to change enough of this!
Give Maxine a break! She’s been distracted with researching Neil Armstrong’s Mars Landing.
And even if we were forceful enough and determined enough to remove them from office, they would still be sitting pretty with their gracious government pensions.
“inability to distinguish her family interests from her public obligations” she has no problem distinguishing at all, she and family come first, public last.
The people who elect her would probably give her a medal for this - if they even care.
Maxine Waters is a heroine in da hood. She won’t be going anywhere anytime soon. Although I applaud the L.A. Times for writing the article.
Burris is the best thing to hit the Illinois Republican party in recent years ~ a Democrat Senator who can be beaten in the next election (which I believe is less than 2 years away).
Just let Burris be Burris.
“a disturbing inability to adequately distinguish her family’s interests from those of the public.”
If Waters was a Republican, the LAT would would save ink and wood pulp by replacing this tortured convolution of semantic sophistry with one word; ‘corruption’. But she’s a Democrat, and a woman of color to boot.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.