Waters Defends Ties to Bank

WASHINGTON--"Rep. Maxine Waters defended her relationship with a Boston-based bank in which she and her husband have held financial stakes, saying in a written statement that she didn't do anything improper in advocating on its behalf.

Ms. Waters (D., Calif.) said her efforts were intended to aid minority-owned banks overall, not just OneUnited Bank, an institution that received $12 million in federal bailout money.

Reports this week in The Wall Street Journal and New York Times detailed Ms. Waters's efforts to help OneUnited in recent years, in particular last fall, when she sought help from Treasury officials after the bank's capital dried up and it was in danger of failing.

"I have been an outspoken advocate for minority communities and businesses in California and nationally for decades," she said. "These articles only revealed one thing: I am indeed an advocate for minority banks."

Ms. Waters's statement said she asked former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson to meet with the National Bankers Association, a group of African-American bankers whose president is the senior counsel of OneUnited.

Treasury officials have said the substance of the September meeting focused on the bankers' request for help for OneUnited, which they refused.

Later that month, Congress passed federal bailout legislation that included a provision crafted specifically to aid OneUnited. The bank likely wouldn't otherwise have qualified for bailout funds because it was too weak."

Sound familiar? It should. These are the same shenanigans that caused the mortgage/credit fiasco. Good money being thrown after bad because gee whiz, minorities shouldn't be EXPECTED to follow the same rules as everyone else. They're obviously different, so say the liberals, and need be treated quite differently.

Maxine herself has been named one of the most corrupt members of Congress but such an allegation must be done with a whisper because....

Yep, you got it.

She's different.