Maxine Waters: A Gift That Keeps Giving
Congresswoman Maxine Waters failed to anticipate her “destroy Trump” campaign would have an unpleasant boomerang effect on her own political career.
She experienced an unwanted surprise this week when returning to her posh home in Hancock Park after making the media rounds in the so-called impeachment campaign against President Trump.
Protestors had gathered outside her LA mini-mansion waving placards that read: “Impeach Maxine Waters” and “Do Your Job,” referring to the congresswoman’s 35-year tenure representing the infamous suburb of Compton. “She’s not representing her constituents, especially the black constituents,” complained one of the protestors before the KABC media crew. “She thinks by putting down our president, we’re going to like her more,” complained another protestor. “Every time she talks, she makes me want to throw up.” That can’t be good for her re-election chances.
Not all was doom-and-gloom on the scene. There was even a mariachi band that allowed the gathering to protest in style.
Apparently Waters is too distracted as the new media darling -- dubbed “Auntie Maxine” by fawning reporters -- to perform her job. Her long history of corruption and abysmal performance in office never seems to make its way into the conversation among her co-conspirators (aka reporters) in the mainstream media.
It is a perverse irony that President Trump works round-the-clock to make inroads to improve the lives of Americans in his few months in office, and Waters with a whopping 35 years on the job continues representing a district where the socioeconomic conditions grow progressively worse.
Perhaps that’s the reason one of the protestors suggested withholding the congresswoman’s salary by waving a sign that read: “No Justice No Paycheck.” Here’s what they are so mad about: Compton is now more than $40 million awash in debt; produces schools dubbed “dropout” factories, has lost accreditation of its community college; and widespread gang violence resulted in the 43rd district being listed as the most dangerous place for homicides in Los Angeles County, according to the Los Angeles Daily News.
To be fair, Compton retains the distinction of being the birthplace to the only bulletproof drive-thru funeral home. (I’m sure the proprietor has his or her reasons.)
No wonder Waters cannot be expected to live in the district she represents. It’s too dangerous. She’s safely ensconced approximately 20 miles away, but everyone knows that a change in Southland zip codes can translate to mean living worlds apart.
As for her history of corruption, Waters will argue to the death -- or at least wear you out -- that the three-year congressional ethics committee investigating her diversion of bailout money to her husband’s bank, OneUnited, (in which he was a stockholder and board member) was made up of a racist cabal orchestrated by the Red State (given new meaning today). The congresswoman’s influence peddling in real estate finance also caught the attention of the IRS labeling the transactions as a “scam,” according to the agency’s 2006 report.
All things considered, President Trump could not ask for a better adversary than Waters. She talks a lot about connecting the dots between Putin and Trump through baseless allegations, misstatement of facts and fanning the media-induced smoke in hopes of igniting a fire. Her own words best make her case in which she deserves an additional moniker as the “Queen of Malapropisms.”
“The fact that he (President) is wrapping his arms around Putin,” she alleged at a recent press conference, “While Putin is continuing to advance into Korea.” The congresswoman knew something was off in her statement as she looked somewhat confused, but this did not stop her from repeating the Korea allegation. “Crimea,” whispered a concerned liberal standing behind her. Let’s be clear: Putin invaded the Crimea, and not North or South Korea.
Should we give Auntie Maxine a pass because both words contain the same number of syllables. Then she would earn the same pass for referring to the President’s chief of staff, Reince Priebus, as “Mike Priebus.”
It appears her liberal friends are more forgiving of her mangled messages, but not so understanding of her corruption. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), a liberal group supported by George Soros, drew up a list of “the most corrupt members of Congress,” and Auntie Maxine was among the Hall of Shamers.
These are supposed to be her liberal friends.
Throughout the congresswoman’s 13 terms in office, she has acquired a long history of shameful conduct and baseless allegations dating back to the 1990s: She accused the CIA of deliberately distributing “crack cocaine to young blacks” in the inner cities and paid a courtesy visit to the parents of the black youth who randomly selected a white person (pulled from his truck) to bash his head with a cement block in a LA race riot in 1992. The parents of the innocent truck driver, Reginald Denny, did not receive the same courtesy visit. These acts of violence were dubbed by Waters as “somewhat understandable” at the time. Therefore she said: “So I call it a rebellion.” She’s on to her next “resistance” movement.
Congresswoman Waters is the perfect face, now named as the “Auntie of the Resistance,” to best reflect the shameful character and perverse nature of the campaign to destroy the majority government now in power.
Robyn Dolgin is a feature writer who has written extensively for Copley News Service and City News Service.