DEMOCRAT DIRTY LAUNDRY: Dems Support Waters for Top Banking Spot, Ignoring Her Ongoing Ethics Case Involving…Banks
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Dems Support Waters for Top Banking Spot, Ignoring Her Ongoing Ethics Case Involving…Banks
California Democrat Would Oversee the Same Financial Services Issues She is Currently Under Ethics Investigation For SPIN CYCLE: Then-Speaker Pelosi Promised that Democrats Would “Demand the Highest Ethics from Every Public Servant”: “Our goal is to restore accountability, honesty and openness at all levels of government. To do so, we will create and enforce rules that demand the highest ethics from every public servant, sever unethical ties between lawmakers and lobbyists, and establish clear standards that prevent the trading of official business for gifts.” (Nancy Pelosi’s “A New Direction for America,” Page 21) Though Waters has been under an ethics cloud in recent years, sources said the Californian appears to have all but secured the slot being vacated by retiring Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.). In fact, the ethics issue has rallied the close-knit Congressional Black Caucus behind Waters, and its protective front has helped her practically lock up the Financial Services spot despite the ongoing case. “Waters is a powerhouse,” one senior Democratic aide observed… — Yet at the Financial Services Committee, everyone is deferring to Waters, the second-most-senior Democrat behind Frank and a longtime advocate for minority businesses. The 11-term lawmaker even flaunted her likely promotion in a speech last month at the Democratic convention in California, telling listeners that financial institutions are “shaking in their boots … because Maxine Waters is going to be the next chair of the Financial Services Committee.” Her colleagues don’t seem to be challenging that assertion. Rep. Carolyn Maloney, whose New York district encompasses much of Manhattan and more specifically Wall Street, recently told Roll Call, “I’m supporting Maxine.” Maloney had considered challenging Waters for the position. Rep. Mel Watt (N.C.), one of several CBC members who also sit on Financial Services, offered similar comments shortly after Frank announced his retirement last year. “I’m supporting her, and there are no circumstances under which I would contest that,” Watt said in December. — Still, Waters’ ascension is not without controversy. She is not an active fundraiser for her fellow House candidates, an expected duty of any lawmaker with future ambition. And the ethics case, which has dragged on for several years, concerns Financial Services issues. The panel has been investigating whether she and her staff intervened with federal regulators on behalf of a community bank in which her husband had a financial interest. Just days before a rare public ethics trial was slated to begin in November 2010 — already more than a year after allegations first surfaced — the House Ethics Committee announced that it had uncovered new information and the proceedings would be postponed. Two staffers were placed on administrative leave following the cancellation, and internal documents leaked to the press showed that the committee’s former staff director believed the integrity of the probe had been compromised. In July, the Ethics Committee hired Billy Martin, a partner at the law firm Dorsey & Whitney, to investigate the actions of committee members and staffers in the Waters matter and determine whether and how the committee’s investigation of the California Democrat could continue. Martin’s contract was later extended and is set to expire this summer. Though the Ethics panel announced last month that it had appointed alternates for six Members who had recused themselves from the case, the status of Martin’s report on the committee and the Waters probe remains unknown. If the committee moves to censure Waters, as it did with then-Ways and Means Chairman Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.), her bid to move up at Financial Services could be compromised. If the findings are anything less, it’s unclear what the ramifications might be. But Waters, Cleaver suggested, “is a victim of partisanship in Washington. Not from Members as much as the Ethics Committee.” (Jessica Brady, “Power Discourages Panel Challenges to Maxine Waters,” Roll Call, 3/14/12) To read the entire story, click here.
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