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<p>WASHINGTON (AP) — In an extraordinary development, six of the House Ethics Committee's 10 members Friday dropped out of the investigation of longtime Democratic lawmaker Maxine Waters of California, saying they wanted to ensure there was no bias in the case.</p>

The tumultuous ethics case against Rep. Maxine Waters, one of Los Angeles’ most enduring politicians, took another strange turn Friday as six members of the House Ethics Committee recused themselves from considering the charges against her. Committee Chairman Jo Bonner (R-Ala.) said that all five of the panel’s Republicans, including himself, and one Democrat were taking the unusual action of recusing themselves from further involvement in the long-running Waters case "out of an abundance of caution and to avoid even an appearance of unfairness." Six new House members immediately were named to the bipartisan panel to consider all matters related...

Maxine Waters reminded us today that, should Democrats win back the House, she is in line to become the next chairwoman of the Financial Services Committee. If that doesn’t scare you, then just watch this video. In it, she calls Speaker John Boehner and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor “demons” who “would rather do whatever they can to destroy this president, rather than for the good of this country.” She also told listeners, “Don’t ever let me see again in life those Republicans in our hall on our screens talking about anything.” Anything?

LIMA, Peru (AP) -- Peru's government abused its authority by barring paroled U.S. activist Lori Berenson and her 31-month-old son from leaving the country to spend the holidays in New York City with her family, her lawyer charged Saturday. "Administratively, you can't block a court order," Anibal Apari said after Berenson told The Associated Press that she and her son Salvador were prevented from boarding a flight Friday night despite being granted permission in court.

The House Ethics Committee said Friday it has extended for seven months a contract with an outside counsel hired to investigate allegations against Rep. Maxine Waters and the committee handling of that investigation. The ethics panel said the new contract with Washington attorney Billy Martin would continue through July 31, 2012. .. The investigation centers on whether Waters tried to aid a troubled bank, Boston-based OneUnited, where her husband owned stock. The focus is on a meeting the California Democrat requested between Treasury Department officials and representatives of an association representing minority-owned banks, including OneUnited. OneUnited received $12 million in...

While there has been some talk about scratching Maxine Waters as the replacement for Barney Frank on the House Financial Service Committee, by the look of the googly eyes Democrats are making at each other, don’t count on Dems to do the decent thing. The decent thing would be have Go-to-Hell Maxine step aside for a less ethically challenged liberal- you know, if there are any. Frank, the ranking Democrat on the committee, announced he would retire rather than face a tough reelection fight. As Ezra Klein pointed out in his WonkBlog, however, the top contender to push Waters aside...

When Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., announced his intention not to seek re-election after a 32-year career, not one of the nightly news broadcast network anchors found time or space to mention either Frank's central role in the housing meltdown or his congressional reprimand. Not one. Similarly, an Associated Press article headlined, "Democratic Rep. Barney Frank Announces Retirement," mentioned the reprimand, but nada on Frank and the housing collapse. ABC called him "one of the most familiar, powerful and colorful characters on Capitol Hill." NBC said, "Among his legacies -- besides his legendary sharp tongue -- he was the first member...

When Barney Frank (D-Fannie Mae) announces that he’s not going to run for reelection, you can bet that the Democrats have between zero chances and zilch of winning back the lower chamber. Or at least you hope they do, because the stakes are greater than merely partisan politics. While Politico reports that Democrats aren’t yet writing off winning back the US House of Representatives, Townhall Finance will tell you that it’s a near certainty that the GOP will pick up seats in 2012;  thankfully and gratefully. And that’s a good thing for both Republicans and Democrats, because next in line...

Wall Street executives already are bracing for the possibility that Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) will take over as the senior Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee from Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.). Waters is in line for Frank’s spot and could become chairwoman of the panel if Democrats retake the House. Frank will announce Monday that he will not seek another term in the House. The California liberal is seen as to the left of Frank, the architect of 2010’s Wall Street reform bill, on financial issues. While banks and other financial institutions often battled Frank, he was seen as...

Video at link.(CNSNews.com) - When asked to comment Wednesday about the deaths and crimes that have occurred around Occupy protests being held across the country, Rep. Maxine Waters said “that’s life and it happens.” “That’s a distraction from the goals of the protesters,” Waters, who says she supports the Occupy movement, told CNSNews.com after an event at the Capitol sponsored by the Congressional Progressive Caucus. “Let me just say this: Anytime you have a gathering, homeless people are going to show up,” said Waters. “They will find some comfort in having some other people out on the streets with them....

Welcome to a political tale about a night visit to Rep. Maxine Waters from the Devil of America's Future: Maxine: Why are you here in my house!? Devil: You promised to help the "Tea Party" go to hell. Maxine: What? Devil: Politicians should know by now--you can talk but you can't hide. It was quite a sound bite: "And as far as I'm concerned, the 'tea party' can go straight to hell"....blah blah blah. And then moved by the resounding applause, "I intend to help them get there!" Maxine: That's out of context! Devil: That last line is what got...

Held By:South Central L.A. Tea Party Event: The South Central L.A. Tea Party (SCLATP) will be attending the California Legislative Black Caucus Town Hall Meeting. We encourage ALL tea party supporters and citizens concerned about out-of-control spending in Sacramento, high taxes, and the future of this great state to show up! Rep. Maxine Waters and Rep. Karen Bass may be in attendance. The California Legislative Black Caucus is the state arm of the Congressional Black Caucus. WHAT: Join SCLATP at the California Legislative Black Caucus Town Hall Meeting. We recommend you register if you wish to get inside the...

Are we witnessing a crack-up within the key demographic President Obama must count on to have any hope of re-election? Al Sharpton has come out firing at Maxine Waters and other black Dems for their criticism of President Obama's perceived indifference to black unemployment. Last month, long-time congresswoman Waters told the audience at a Congressional Black Caucus event that she and other black leaders were ready to attack President Obama as soon as African-Americans "tell us it's all right and you unleash us." On his MSNBC show last night, Sharpton accused those who spoke of "unleash us" of being "hypocrites."...

Looks like Barack Obama really made an impression on the Congressional Black Caucus this weekend — but not the one he intended. Maxine Waters tells CBS that she’s not sure exactly who Obama thought he was addressing, and claimed that the CBC has worked a whole lot more on unemployment than the President has, without whining about their critics. But Waters goes one better by telling CBS that Obama wouldn’t have dared telling a couple of other identity groups to stop griping: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VI0drr-F-2U&feature=player_embedded

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) on Monday complained that President Obama had unfairly singled out the African-American community and characterized them as complainers over the weekend. "Despite the fact that he's appointed [Sonia] Sotomayor to the Supreme Court, he has an office for excellence in Hispanic education right in the White House, [the Hispanic caucus is] still pushing him," she said. "He certainly didn't tell them to stop complaining, and he would never say that to the gay and lesbian community, who really pushed him on Don't Ask Don't Tell. Even in a speech to AIPAC [the American Israel Public Affairs...

..."a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, says she found the president's language "a bit curious." She says Obama didn't address Hispanics in such a blunt manner and would never use that language in a speech to a gathering of gays or Jews."

Rep. Waters urges Obama to drop nice-guy act and fight Republicans, Tea Party By Mike Lillis - 09/22/11 02:46 PM ET It’s time for President Obama to quit watching sports and drinking beer with his political opponents in the hope it will lead to a bipartisan agreement, Rep. Maxine Waters said Thursday. The outspoken California Democrat needs to fight harder against the GOP and Tea Party and for Democratic policy priorities, outspoken Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) said Thursday. “He's been very nice about it,” Waters said of Obama’s budget negotiations with Republicans. “He's been on the other side of the...

Rep. Allen West (R- Fla.), the lone Republican in the Congressional Black Caucus, said Tuesday morning that he is considering leaving the group in light of comments by caucus whip Rep. Andrè Carson (D-Ind.), who said at a town hall that tea-party affiliated members of Congress see African Americans as "second-class citizens" and would be happy to see blacks "hanging from a tree." "When you start using words such as lynching… that’s a reprehensible word and I think we should move away from that language," West said on Fox & Friends. "One of the things I'm starting to think about...

Just hours before President Barack Obama addresses a joint session of Congress on his jobs plan, Rep. Marxine Waters (D-Calif.) is demanding the nation’s first African-American president prove he cares as much about unemployed blacks as he does about Iowa’s swing voters. “There are roughly 3 million African Americans out of work today, a number nearly equal to the entire population of Iowa. I would suggest that if the entire population of Iowa, a key state on the electoral map and a place that served as a stop on the president’s jobs bus tour were unemployed, they would be mentioned...

Citing “gross misconduct,” the lawyer representing Democratic Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) is asking the House Ethics Committee to dismiss all charges against his client. In a letter addressed to the chairman of the House Ethics Committee, Republican Jo Bonner of Alabama, and the committee's top Democrat, Linda Sanchez, Waters' attorney Stanley Brand cited internal documents showing a close relationship between two former committee lawyers in the case and Republican committee members, saying “any further action by the committee would be “irremediably tainted and without legal foundation.” Rep. Waters is a senior member of the House Financial Services Committee. The committee...

"I’m talking about a jobs program of a trillion dollars or more. We’ve got to put Americans to work. That’s the only way to revitalize this economy. When people work they earn money, they spend that money, and that’s what gets the economy up and going," Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) told NBC's "Meet the Press."

Welcome to the echo chamber of ignorance of the Left’s post-racial America. Black Liberals thought that electing a black president would make them happier than a Michael Vick pound pup, but instead most are now madder than Whoopi Goldberg’s blind date. In an America where black achievement can be seen and heard everywhere, Andre Carson and other members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) are crying foul, saying that the Tea Party wants to take America back to the ‘60’s. Don’t believe your lying eyes showcasing black achievement all over America, because black people are being oppressed. By the Tea...

At a Town Hall event in Los Angeles, Dem congresswoman Maxine Waters said the president should use the bully pulpit to, "bring the gangstas in, put them around the table and let them know that if they don't come up with loan modifications and keep people in their homes, that they've worked so hard for, we're gonna tax them out of business"

Ah, the Swamp Queen is doing what she does best: Throwing the weight of government around to intimidate private businesses and shake ‘em down. The Congressional Black Caucus is trying to help by organizing job fairs across the country. Congresswoman Maxine Waters also wants to help by putting more pressure on the big banks to help with mortgages. “If they don’t come up with loan modifications and keep people in their homes that they’ve worked so hard for, we’re going to tax them out of business,” said Waters.

According to Maxine Waters the Tea party “can go straight to hell”. But “VIVA FIDEL!” she chanted during the rapturous reception that greeted the Stalinist dictator’s visit to Harlem’s Riverside Church on Sept. 9, 2000. The overflow crowd packed the Church to suffocation and spilled from the doors onto the streets and sidewalks. "I came to Harlem because I knew it was here that I would find my best friends!" beamed the jailer of the longest suffering black political prisoners in modern history, inside the Harlem church that might still be radioactive except for Khrushchev foiling his fondest wish in...

Waters to Obama aide: Say 'black' By: Jennifer Epstein August 23, 2011 11:11 AM EDT Rep. Maxine Waters and other black leaders lobbed heated questions at one of President Barack Obama’s top jobs advisers Monday, pressing him to confirm the White House is focusing on creating jobs in struggling African-American communities — and to say the word “black.” Don Graves, the executive director of the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, said at a nighttime forum at a black church in Miami that the president is “focused on every community across the country,” The Miami Herald reported. But when he...

So, the other day I’m thinking to myself, who are the Tea Party? We’re actually a really diverse group, crossing lines of party, religion and race, even income divisions. What holds us together as a group? And then it dawned on me, that in addition to believing in small government, self-reliance and adherence to the Constitution, there is probably an even easier way to define the Tea Party. We’re tax payers, basically. I would guess the majority in the Tea Party are those who actually pay the taxes. So when Maxine Waters, piped up with “The Tea Party can go...

So, the other day I’m thinking to myself, who are the Tea Party? We’re actually a really diverse group, crossing lines of party, religion and race, even income divisions. What holds us together as a group? And then it dawned on me, that in addition to believing in small government, self-reliance and adherence to the Constitution, there is probably an even easier way to define the Tea Party. We’re tax payers, basically. I would guess the majority in the Tea Party are those who actually pay the taxes. So when Maxine Waters, piped up with “The Tea Party can go...

Rep. Maxine Waters, the despiteous Democrat from California, not only thinks tea-party people should go to hell – she has offered to show us the way. Do tell. First of all, the devil is from hell, so it stands to reason that one of his children would know the way back home. Her sudden outburst needs to be kept in context of what is actually taking place. Last week she offered feigned, tepid angst, which was supposedly intended to give the public appearance that she, her constituents and the Congressional Black Congress were upset with Obama for not paying attention...

Our lovely liberal legislators just can’t seem to stop. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) this weekend informed the world just where she thinks Debbie Wasserman Schultz’ Tea Party “tyrants� and Vice President Joe Biden’s Tea Party “terrorists� belong: Rep. Maxine Waters continued to make waves during the summer recess, telling a town hall meeting that “the tea party can go straight to hell.”“This is a tough game. You can’t be intimidated. You can’t be frightened. And as far as I’m concerned — the tea party can go straight to hell,” Waters said, according to Los Angeles television station KABC.The remarks came...

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) addressing the 12 percent jobless rate in California during a town hall meeting Saturday said “the tea party can go straight to hell.” She made the comment in Inglewood, Calif. at what was billed as a “Kitchen Table Summit” with constituents, reported the Los Angeles Times and KABC-TV. “I’m not afraid of anybody,” Waters said. “This is a tough game. You can’t be intimidated. You can't be frightened. And as far as I’m concerned, the tea party can go straight to hell.” With her at the forum in front of about 1,000 people were two other...

So much for dialing back the rhetoric, right? On Saturday in Inglewood, Calif., Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters had some harsh words for the tea party. “I’m not afraid of anybody,” the California congresswoman told constituents in footage that appeared on ABC affiliate KABC in Los Angeles, not backing down from comments made about President Obama earlier in the week. “This is a tough game. You can’t be intimidated. You can’t be frightened. And as far as I’m concerned — the tea party can go straight to hell.” That proclamation was met with cheers from the audience, including attendees sporting purple...

So much for dialing back the rhetoric, right? On Saturday in Inglewood, Calif., California Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters had some harsh words for the tea party. “I’m not afraid of anybody,” Waters told constituents in footage that appeared on ABC affiliate KCAL in Los Angeles. “This is a tough game. You can’t be intimidated. You can’t be frightened. And as far as I’m concerned — the tea party can go straight to hell.” ...more (w/video)...

Still, she saved her sharpest barb for conservatives, especially the populist Tea Party, which helped Republicans take control of the House of Representatives in the November elections. Waters blamed the group for making things worse for working people. "As far as I'm concerned, the Tea Party can go straight to hell," she said. "And I'm gonna tell them how to get there

Rep. Maxine Waters: 'The Tea Party Can Go Straight To Hell' August 20, 2011 Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) came out swinging against Republicans in Congress on Saturday as she addressed the unemployed during a forum in Inglewood. The event occurred a day after new statistics were released showing that California's jobless rate last month went up to 12%, from 11.8%. California now has the second-highest rate of unemployment in the nation, trailing only Nevada at 12.9%, and its jobless rate is well above the U.S. average of 9.1%. Waters vowed to push Congress to focus on creating more jobs....

This clip explores what that expression, "when you unleash us," can mean. The end times cosmology of Black Nationalists calls for a final confrontation between the black and white races, to be led by black messiahs (plural). Black Liberation Theology is a pseudo-Christian Black Nationalist doctrine that was derived in large part from that of the Nation of Islam. The Nation of Islam is a black cult-like sect, using Islam as a facade, much as Obama's Trinity church in Chicago fronts as a Christian church.

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), who recently professed to a crowd in Detroit that she, and the rest of the Congressional Black Caucus, are “supportive of the President but getting tired,” has returned to work out on the Obama heavy bag some more. This time, in an appearance on “news” network MSNBC (where on-air personalities can invent fraudulent quotes with doctored video to slander presidential candidates, and yet keep their jobs), Waters declared herself low on patience for Obama’s fabulously expensive “green jobs” initiatives. “Of course, we want to be part of the new innovation and green jobs,” said Waters, who...

Maxine Waters: Why isn't Obama in black communities? By Brian Montopoli Democrats Rep. Maxine Waters of California, a central member of the Congressional Black Caucus, said Tuesday that "we don't know why" President Obama is not visiting black communities on his Midwestern bus tour, adding, "We're supportive of the president, but we're getting tired." Waters, speaking at a freewheeling forum at Detroit's Wayne County Community College, suggested members of the CBC don't pressure Mr. Obama because their constituents are proud to have an African-American president, adding that "if we go after the president too hard, you're going after us." "The...

"We're supportive of the president, but we're getting tired. We're getting tired. So, what we want to do is, we want to give the president every opportunity to show -- to show what he can do and what he's prepared to lead on," Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) told a Congressional Black Caucus-sponsored gathering yesterday in Detroit. "Our people are hurting," Waters added.

Carol Leonnig of the Washington Post writes today that the House Ethics Committee is planning to spend $500,000 for an investigation of Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), and the Committee's own staff.Last month, the Committee announced the hiring of Billy Martin to review the actions of the Committee's staff that were cited as a reason to push the Waters trial beyond last November's elections. Martin would then proceed to investigate the Waters matter if he determines that the staff's previous conduct was not sufficiently prejudicial to dismiss the case, as she has requested.As Leonnig reports: Ethics watchdogs from both ends...

Rep. Maxine Waters delivered a blistering defense of race-conscious politics on Sunday, telling thousands of delegates to the NAACP's national convention that conservative politicians are actively working to roll back the voting rights of African-Americans ahead of the 2012 presidential election. "With only 15 months left before the next presidential election, Republicans are rewriting voting laws to require photo identification at the polls, reduce the number of days of early voting and to enhance voting restrictions against ex-felons and out-of-state students," Waters said, citing legislation signed into law by GOP governors in Texas, Wisconsin and Florida.

Waters threatens to sue the House Ethics Committee for mishandling her case.The long-delayed ethics probe of Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) may be underway again, however Waters is now threatening to sue the House Ethics Committee. Waters is accused of using her influence to gain special treatment for Massachusetts-based bank OneUnited, which received $12 million in bailout funds. Changing a law was required in order to get them the money. Her husband, former Ambassador Sidney Williams, owned more than $350,000 in stock in the bank, and had also been a board member.Because of infighting following the November 2010 election, her trial...

The House Ethics Committee on Wednesday announced the hiring of an outside counsel to review the case against Rep. Maxine Waters and misconduct allegations against the committee staffers involved in investigating the veteran Los Angeles congresswoman. The panel voted unanimously Tuesday night to hire Washington attorney Billy Martin. "Serious allegations have been made about the committee's own conduct in this matter,'' the panel's Republican chairman Jo Bonner of Alabama and top Democrat, Linda Sanchez of California, said in a statement. "The committee has not taken these allegations lightly.'' Martin's hiring comes days after the disclosure of internal committee documents by...

Stung by allegations of misconduct within the panel, the House Ethics Committee has hired an outside counsel to take over the case against Rep. Maxine Waters.Billy Martin, a partner at the law firm Dorsey and Whitney, has been hired by the committee to “review, advise and assist the Committee in completing the matter of Representative Maxine Waters,” announced Reps. Jo Bonner (R-Ala.) and Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.), the chairman and ranking member on Ethics, in a statement released on Wednesday.Martin has also been charged with looking into whether the Ethics Committee handled the Waters case properly. POLITICO reported earlier this week...

Maxine Waters calls for case to be dismissed By: John Bresnahan July 18, 2011 05:23 PM EDT Rep. Maxine Waters is calling for the House Ethics Committee to dismiss the long-running case against her, claiming she can’t get fair treatment from the secretive panel in the wake of allegations that staffers improperly shared information in an investigation into her finances. Waters (D-Calif.), who is threatening to bring her fight to the House floor, was reacting to a POLITICO story Monday that included internal emails, memos and documents from inside the Ethics Committee that revealed bitter internal disputes on the panel...

The same congressional panel that launched a preliminary inquiry into Weiner-gate this week has been diddling around with several other Democratic ethics scandals for years. These aren't foxes guarding the henhouse. They're sloths guarding the foxhole. The House Ethics Committee is now reportedly probing into Twitter-holic Democratic New York Rep. Anthony Weiner's possible abuse of government resources while sending pervy messages and photos to young women across the country. The latest batch of Weiner's leaked social-media self-portraits -- more cheesecake than beefcake -- showed him in various states of undress at the congressional gym. From what other public buildings has...

Members of California's congressional delegation called on Gov. Jerry Brown Friday to join three other states in suspending participation in a controversial federal immigration enforcement program. The seven Democratic representatives acted after the Los Angeles City Council voted overwhelmingly this week to support legislation allowing local communities to opt out of the Secure Communities program and Sheriff Lee Baca, a strong proponent, qualified his support in a letter to immigrant activists.In recent weeks, governors in Illinois, New York and Massachusetts have sought to suspend or have declined to enter into Secure Communities participation agreements. When it was launched in 2008,...

Five months after her ethics trial was postponed and the investigation reopened, the ethics case against Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) remains in limbo. The delay has been caused by turnover among members and staffing problems at the House Ethics Committee, including the failure so far of Reps. Jo Bonner (R-Ala.) and Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.) — the chairman and ranking Democrat of the secretive panel — to hire a new staff director and chief counsel. Sources close to the Ethics Committee noted that the glacially slow pace of action by the panel in the 112th Congress hasn’t been marked by the...

Last year Representative Maxine Waters (D-CA) landed on Judicial Watch’s “Washington’s Ten Most Wanted Corrupt Politicians,” and for good reason. Waters (and her partner in crime, Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA)) helped secure a TARP grant for the failing Massachusetts bank OneUnited — a bank in which her husband had a significant investment. ( Michelle Malkin reports that Waters’ husband, Sidney Williams held a $350,000 stake in OneUnited as recently as June 2008.) Could the conflict of interest be any more egregious? We didn’t think so. And for a while it appeared the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct...

Representative Maxine Waters (D-CA) is frustrated that her ethics investigation has been suspended – shortly before she was supposed to face an investigative hearing to look at the charges against her. The pause came abruptly in October, when investigators of the House Ethics Committee discovered a critical piece of information – an E-mail from Waters’s Chief of Staff – that had not been turned over to committee investigators. Now – according to the Washington Post – investigators are trying to determine why the E-mail was not discovered until after the formal investigation had concluded