Maxine Waters
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| Maxine Waters | |
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| In office 1991 - present |
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| Preceded by | Augustus Hawkins |
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| Succeeded by | Incumbent |
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| Born | August 15, 1938 St. Louis, Missouri |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse | Sidney Williams |
| Religion | Non-denominational Protestant |
Maxine Waters (born Maxine Moore Carr on August 15, 1938) has served as a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives since 1991, representing the 35th District of California (map). She resides in South Los Angeles, in the Vermont Square district approximately six miles south of downtown.
Her husband, Sidney Williams, is a former U.S. Ambassador to the Bahamas.
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[edit] Biography
Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Waters graduated from Sumner High School in St. Louis and attended Los Angeles State College (now California State University, Los Angeles). Prior to her entry into politics, she was a teacher and a volunteer coordinator in the Head Start program. Waters entered the California State Assembly in 1976. Upon the retirement of Augustus F. Hawkins in 1990, Waters was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives for the 29th Congressional District. (The district was renumbered the 35th District in 1992 after California gained seven additional seats in the House after the 1990 U.S. census.)
As a first-term representative, she gained fame by walking into the Oval Office and telling then-President George H.W. Bush, "Your time is up." Waters co-chaired the 1992 presidential campaign of Bill Clinton.
She was also featured as two monolouges in Anna Deavere Smith's Twilight Los Angeles, 1992, where she recalls a trip to the White House where she burst in to a meeting, uninvited, and tries to speak to her people. Her office was burnt down in the riots of 1992.
In addition to her service on the House Banking and Judiciary committees, Waters has served as chair of the Congressional Black Caucus (of which she remains a member). She is also a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.
[edit] Controversy
[edit] Accusations made by Maxine Waters
Waters is most noted and criticized for accusing the United States Government, specifically Representatives Mark Foley, Elijah Cummings, and Kendrick Meek, of masterminding the 2004 Haiti rebellion that ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide from power and the Bush administration for the Venezuelan coup attempt of 2002 that temporarily removed Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez from power.[1][2] She has referred to Haitian Prime Minister Gérard Latortue as an "illegitimate puppet" of Canada, France, and the United States, accusing the governments of these respective countries of actively helping Guy Philippe, Louis-Jodel Chamblain and Jean Tatun burn police stations and kill civilians.[2] She has called upon President George W. Bush to "accept responsibility for the ongoing violence, the chaos, and the blatant attempts to steal these elections."[3]
She is currently investigating "the CIA's possible involvement in the proliferation of crack cocaine in our inner cities."[4][5]
Waters has called the 1992 Los Angeles riots an "uprising" and a "rebellion."
When Waters appeared on Brian Williams' Meet the Press with Republican Congressman Peter T. King, she repeatedly accused King of racism. She told King not to forget that she knows "something about what you have done. I know how you used my pictures and used me in your campaign. Yeah, you're guilty of racism."[6]
Waters called former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan "a plantation owner."[7]
[edit] Alleged Corruption
In January 2006, Waters was named as one of the twenty most corrupt members of Congress in the Beyond Delay report[8], commissioned by the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. The report accused the Congress member of abusing her position for the benefit of her family. Her family members earned more than $1 million through business deals involving companies she had been in direct connection.[9]
[edit] Quotes
- "The objection is in writing, and I don't care that it isn't signed by a member of the Senate." (December 2000, on her objection to the Presidential Election in 2000), to which Al Gore responded "The chair would advise that the rules do care."
- "We're treating [prisoners in Iraq] worse than so called Saddam had treated them."[2]
- "George W Bush, go to hell! And while you’re at it, we want you to take Ashcroft with you. And don’t forget Rumsfeld. And please carry along Condi Rice. . . I have to march because my mother could not have an abortion." (at the televised March for Women's Lives march, Washington D.C., April 24, 2005) [1]
- "I don't see white police officers slamming the heads of little white boys into police cars."[10]
- "The Haitian people have suffered greatly at the hands of the United States, France and Canada, powerful nations who preach democracy and yet orchestrated the removal of the democratically-elected president of Haiti and drove him from his own country."[3]
- President George W. Bush "does not deserve to use the word 'democracy' for he neither respects nor supports it, but simply promotes the rhetoric of democracy to his own advantage."[3]
- Journalist Gary Webb's "work was not only in depth, revealing and confrontational but it single handedly created discussion and debate about the proliferation of crack cocaine and the role of the CIA."[11]
[edit] References
- ^ Rep Maxine Waters: Aristide Says 'I Was Kidnapped' Democracy Now!
- ^ a b c Rep. Maxine Waters Calls on Congress Not To Recognize New Haitian Government Democracy Now!
- ^ a b c Haiti: Maxine Waters denounces election fraud by coup government Haiti Action Committee
- ^ Max Is Mad National Review Online
- ^ Rep. Maxine Waters CNN
- ^ Maxine Waters Defends Ex-Klansman, Attacks GOP'er as Racist Free Republic
- ^ Liberal writer displays double standard North Carolina Times
- ^ Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) Beyond Delay
- ^ Rep. Maxine Waters Faces New Allegations Free Republic
- ^ "FBI probing videotaped beating", CNN, 2002-07-09. Retrieved on 2006-12-07.
- ^ Congresswoman Maxine Waters Stunned by Death of Gary Webb Who Courageously Investigated and Revealed Connections Between CIA’s Policies and Spread of Crack-Cocaine News Making News
[edit] External links
- Official Web site
- Official Congressional biography
- Maxine Waters campaign Web site
- Top Blacks: Profile of Rep. Maxine Waters
- Haiti regime neither able nor willing to hold fair election by Rep. Maxine Waters
- 1993 Los Angeles Times interview
- Maxine Waters interviewed by John Ziegler. (2 MB)
- "The 20 Most Corrupt Members of Congress" - Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington
- Voting record maintained by the Washington Post
| Preceded by: Augustus F. Hawkins |
United States Representative for the 29th District of California 1991–1992 |
Succeeded by: Henry Waxman |
| Preceded by: Jerry Lewis |
United States Representative for the 35th District of California 1992–Present |
Succeeded by: Incumbent |
