Posted on 08/01/2010 12:33:33 PM PDT by kristinn
The prospect of two long-serving African American lawmakers in the House enduring unprecedented public ethics trials seems likely to add to the growing tension between black members of Congress and Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill and in the Obama administration.
Congressional sources confirmed late Friday that later this year Rep. Maxine Waters (D- Los Angeles) will face an ethics proceeding likely related to allegations that she sought to help a bank with ties to her husband receive federal bailout funds.
The House trial could come on the heels of the high-profile trial of Rep. Charles B. Rangel, the venerable Democrat from New York who is accused of 13 violations of House ethics rules. Like Rangel, Waters chose not to seek a settlement with House ethics investigators that would have involved some admission of wrongdoing.
Between them, Rangel, 80, and Waters, 71, have served in the House for six decades and are leading members of the Congressional Black Caucus. The caucus has long complained that the House ethics process disproportionally targets African Americans in the chamber.
Since its 2009 inception, the Office of Congressional Ethics — an independent watchdog set up at the behest of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) — has investigated at least eight members of the black caucus.
SNIP
The ethics cases are the latest source of tension between the Congressional Black Caucus and Democratic leaders.
The caucus earlier this month was unhappy over the Obama administration's treatment of black Agriculture Department official Shirley Sherrod, who was asked to resign after her remarks in a video clip were taken out of context. In addition, some members of the caucus believe Obama has done little to support the candidacy in Florida of Rep. Kendrick B. Meek, who is bidding to become the state's first African American senator.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Whether or not they are guilty doesn’t matter. We are all racists.
Just to take your point one step further,what happens in the primaries when the panthers and other concerned parties stop dems from voting? I don’t think it will explode after hes dumped but rather the second there’s a serious challenge.
No, that would be me.
Christian, white, former military, gun owner, registered Republican.
The OJ effect: They cain’t be guilty, they’re BLACK!
Congressional Black Caucus = Racists.
If it's easier to go after the white Democrooks first and weaken the Dim Party, I say that's what should be done.
After the Dims are weakened, then go after the black Democrooks.
Isn’t the very existence of a Black Caucus in the Congress a racist construct? Its divisive in its very nature.
Could this be a gift?
Sometimes I wonder, when I read about a kid getting expelled for drawing a (picture of a) gun, (it's always a white kid), or when a Canadian mother gets her son put in Oregon foster care because he was riding his bike without a helmet, I wonder if these aren't just drummed up to keep the number of white suspensions/arrests/foster care cases proportional to the other races.
About 98% of members of Congress should be defending themselves before ethics committees. There are not enough honest members of Congress to form an ethics committee.
I have great reservations about the Black Caucus using government property and spending public dollars on a racist group - whites are barred from the Black Caucus. If that is racism using federal money I don’t know what is. Can you imagine the uproar a White Caucus would create?
A reprimand should be given to Emanual Cleaver for lying about being spit on at the kill the bill rally in March!
so, white demonrats are going after black demonrats, and the strategy in playing the race card is to whip the blacks up into a frenzy to...vote for more demonrats?
~~~(African American) Representative J. C. Watts, speaking of The Black Congressional Congress
"Mr. Cohen asked for admission, and he got his answer. He's white and the Caucus is black. It's time to move on. We have racial policies to pursue and we are pursuing them, as Mr. Cohen has learned. It's an unwritten rule. It's understood."
"Quite simply, Rep. Cohen will have to accept what the rest of the country will have to accept – there has been an unofficial Congressional White Caucus for over 200 years, and now it's our turn to say who can join 'the club.' He does not, and cannot, meet the membership criteria, unless he can change his skin color. Primarily, we are concerned with the needs and concerns of the black population, and we will not allow white America to infringe on those objectives."
~~~Rep. William Lacy Clay, Jr. (CBC member, and son of a founding member) in response to (white) freshman Tennessee Democrat Steve Cohen's unsuccessful 2007 attempt to join the CBC, in the interest of better serving his majority black constituents.
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