Demons, Dummies, and Deceit

By William L. Garvin

What’s up with Maxine Waters? Has the “Democrat Doyenne of Disrespect and Diatribe” dashed disastrously over the cliff? Has the “Madame of Malevolence” lost all her marbles? Has the “Vaunted Vixen of Vituperation” vaulted over the shark? You’d think someone facing an ethics trial would keep a slightly lower profile but not “Mad Maxine”! She continues to spew her acerbic and apocalyptic aphorisms unfettered by truth or common decency. Naturally, her infantile behavior goes unchallenged by her party or the press.

While Representative Waters may whine that the Ethics Committee “lacks decency,” that charge characterizes much of her career. Back in 2004, a Los Angeles Times newspaper article noted that her relatives had made more than a million dollars doing business with “companies, candidates and causes” that were aided by Waters. The unrepentant Waters responded “They do their business and I do mine.” Government watchdog groups labeled her as corrupt in 2005, 2006, 2009 and 2011. Yet she soldiers on.

Current ethics charges have to do with her arranging meetings between the U.S. Treasury Department and OneUnited Bank officials. The bank was heavily invested in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and was in dire straits. The failing bank received $12 million in bailout funds but it wasn’t enough. It was subsequently shut down by the government. Oh yes, Ms. Waters’ husband was a former director and current stockholder in the bank. As for Fannie and Freddie, don’t forget her simpering adulation that “We do not have a crisis at Freddie Mac, and particularly at Fannie Mae, under the outstanding leadership of Frank Raines.” She couldn’t have been more wrong.

As for her interpersonal skill, she has called the first President Bush a “racist”; the second President Bush a “liar”; and Vice-President Cheney a “liar” and a “thief.” In some of her more irrational but predictable moments she has said “And as far as I’m concerned, the Tea Party can go straight to hell.” When Dems and Repubs reached a compromise, she criticized the agreement and ranted “We should have made them walk the plank.” Last week at the California Democratic State Convention, she saw pictures of John Boehner and Eric Cantor on the screen. That’s all it took for her vicious vituperation to erupt into full boil: “Don’t ever let me see again, in life, those Republicans in our hall, on our screens, talking about anything. THESE ARE DEMONS. THEY ARE BRINGING DOWN THIS COUNTRY, DESTROYING THIS COUNTRY…!” Next she’ll be seeing “dead people.”

It appears as if Rep. Waters is only “situationally offended.” For instance, the district she represents has made no discernible economic progress during her tenure. When the riots broke out in South Central LA after the Rodney King fiasco, she was nonplussed. “I maintain it was understandable, if not acceptable, so I call it a rebellion.” When she was questioned about her support for the Occupy Wall Street sites after the deaths and crimes occurred, she blithely noted “That’s life and it happens.” She went on to say “…so I’m not deterred in my support for them because of these negative sorts of things.”

However, just look how easily her sensibilities are offended when it’s a Republican gathering: “I just watched—the Republicans were out there—they were having a great time. They were laughing. They were waving the American flag. They were egging them on and I thought that was outrageous behavior. I really did.” Oh, the horror!

Except for the malevolence, her comments are generally no more substantive than VP Joe Biden’s inartful gaffes. However, if Democrats regain control of the House, she stands to chair the Financial Services Committee despite her total lack of private sector experience. She demonstrated her economic ignorance of supply and demand while grilling oil company executives when she said the following: "Then, this 'liberal will be all about 'socialize' [sic]...er, ah ... basically, ... about the government taking over and running your companies!" Given the total lack of success of OneUnited Bank, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, her District, her State, and her Administration’s fiscal policies, one can only hope that American nightmare never becomes reality! Now that could be demonic!