Scandal-Plagued Maxine Waters Top Dem on Banking Committee

A famously corrupt—and seemingly untouchable—congresswoman renowned for abusing her power to enrich family members is set to hold a ranking position on the powerful House committee that oversees the nation’s financial services industries.

Even for Washington this is a bit much. Democrats have chosen a scandal-plagued college, veteran Congresswoman Maxine Waters, to be the ranking member on the House Financial Services Committee despite her many transgressions over the years. The influential congresswoman has helped family members make more than $1 million through business ventures with companies and causes that she has helped, according to her hometown newspaper.

A few years ago Waters was investigated by the House Ethics Committee for steering $12 million in federal bailout funds to a failing Massachusetts bank (that subsequently got shut down by the government) in which she and her board member husband held shares. Read all about it in Waters’ profile on Judicial Watch’s 2011 “Ten Most Wanted Corrupt Politicians.” list.

Waters has also come under fire for skirting federal elections rules with a shady fundraising gimmick that allows her to receive unlimited amounts of donations from certain contributors. For years the veteran Los Angeles lawmaker has raked in hundreds of thousands of dollars in short periods of time by selling her endorsement to other politicians and political causes for as much as $45,000 a pop instead of raising most of her campaign funds from individuals and political action committees.

Never the less, Waters has been chosen by her party leaders to be their top representative on the Financial Services Committee which has jurisdiction over all issues pertaining to the economy, the banking system, monetary policy and international finance. The announcement was made last week by the House Democratic Caucus steering and policy committee, which is controlled by none other than Nancy Pelosi, the former House Speaker who used the U.S. Air Force as her personal airline.

The steering committee assigns fellow party members to House committees and advises party leaders on policy. In a statement announcing the steering committee’s new members a few days ago, Pelosi bragged that they “reflect the diversity, energy, bold ideas, and creative thinking of all House Democrats , and embody our Democratic commitment to create jobs, strengthen the middle class, and grow the economy.”

It wouldn’t be right to part without also noting some of Maxine Waters’ international accolades. She has made worldwide headlines for her frequent trips to communist Cuba to visit her convicted cop-assassin friend, Joanne Chesimard, who is also known by her Black Panther name of Assata Shakur. Chesimard was sentenced to life in prison after being convicted by a jury of the 1979 murder of a New Jersey State Trooper. With the help of fellow cult members, she escaped from jail and fled to Cuba.

Outraged U.S. lawmakers insisted she be extradited but Waters always stood by her side, likening the cop-assassin to civil rights leader Martin Luther King. In fact, she wrote Cuban Dictator Fidel Castro a letter to assure him that she was not part of the group of U.S. legislators who voted for a resolution to extradite the cop murderer. Waters told Castro that she opposed extradition because Chesimard was “politically persecuted” in the U.S. and simply seeking political asylum in Havana, where she still lives.