Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., has received a temporary reprieve. Her ethics trial, originally set to begin Nov. 29, has been indefinitely postponed. Waters was to go on trial for her role in helping get a $12 million Troubled Asset Relief Program bailout in 2008 for a bank in which her husband owned $350,000 worth of stock. But now congressional investigators have discovered new e-mails between Waters’ Chief of Staff Mikael Moore (who is also Waters’ grandson) and the staff of the House Financial Services Committee. The e-mails indicate that Waters was actively engaged in getting the bank bailout after she was warned by House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass., to stay out of it. The e-mails also appear to contradict what she has told the congressional ethics committee. On Nov. 14, the day before the ethics trial of Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., for underreporting taxable income and a lengthy list of other violations, it was reported that Rangel illegally used $393,000 from his Leadership PAC to pay his legal fees. This represents an additional violation of congressional ethics. Rangel had been specifically instructed to establish a legal defense fund to pay for his attorneys. At his hearing, he disingenuously used his own failure to heed this advice as an excuse to plead for more time. Representing himself, he claimed that his only other option was to accept free legal help, which would violate the congressional gift ban.
In both of these cases, there is a common thread. Since it was announced that they were under investigation for ethics violations, both Waters and Rangel have flouted congressional investigators and have acted with incredible arrogance. Waters has repeatedly sent staffers to congressional events to picket Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and she has stated that the charges are racially motivated. Next week, when the House returns, members will vote on censuring Rangel — an official slap on the wrist. And even if it finds Waters guilty after a fair ethics hearing, the Congress might take the easy way out with her, too.
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The recent election suggests strongly that Americans are fed up with corruption in Washington. In a just world, members of Congress found guilty of cheating on their taxes, lying to investigators, or using their public positions to help themselves would be booted from Congress swiftly. If Congress doesn’t punish its own members adequately for offenses against public integrity, then it is incumbent on voters to punish all of Congress for preserving a corrupt status quo.
