It was inevitable.
A black CNN news commentator, Don Lemon, made sure he discussed the “race angle” (his words) with Sharpton over the ethics investigation of Maxine Waters and Charlie Rangel.
Lemon: …”Now some lawmakers are starting to also ask why two high profile African-American house members are going under such tough scrutiny. I discussed the race angle to these investigations with the Reverend Al Sharpton. And I started by asking him if black members of Congress were being targeted unfairly by the ethics committee”.
Al Sharpton: ….””If you begin to see a pattern of people being called on– to being investigated, allegations that end up [to be] nothing. One would be very naive not to say ‘well, wait a minute, why should we rush to judgement, in particular when we have Charlie Rangel, who has done so much for his district and the country and Maxine Waters, and we’ve already seen two high profile black leaders hit heavy by the media and nothing’s there.”
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2010/08/02/al_sharpton_on_investigations_of_black_congressional_leaders.html
“Nothing”, Al??
Charlie has accumulated a career full of corruption ranging from tax evasion, to false financial disclosure reports, to hidden assets.
http://sfcmac.wordpress.com/2010/07/29/charlie-taxes-what-taxes-rangel-hit-with-13-ethics-violations/
And Maxine had a pretty sweet bailout deal for a bank in which she and her husband had a personal and financial stake:
“…a series of news reports earlier this year questioned (Water’s) role in the decision to provide $12 million in federal bailout funds to OneUnited Bank, where her husband, Sidney Williams, had served on the board and owned a minimum of $500,000 in stock in 2007.”
http://www.rollcall.com/news/38577-1.html?referrer=js
“Congressional financial-disclosure forms show Ms. Waters acquired OneUnited stock worth between $250,000 and $500,000 in March 2004, as did Mr. Williams. Mr. Williams joined the board of OneUnited that year. Each sold shares in September 2004 — including Ms. Waters’s entire stake — but Mr. Williams continued to hold varying amount of the company’s stock. In the lawmaker’s most recent financial-disclosure form, dated May 2008 and covering the prior year, Ms. Waters reported that her husband held between $250,000 and $500,000 worth of the bank’s stock. Mr. Williams also received interest payments from a separate holding at the bank, also worth between $250,000 and $500,000. The 2008 form doesn’t specify what that is. Mr. Williams stepped down from the bank’s board last spring. It couldn’t be learned whether he still owns stock in the bank. Mr. Williams didn’t return calls seeking comment.”
Waters (along with Rep. Frank) participated directly in pressuring the feds for OneUnited’s piece of the bailout pie. She personally contacted the Treasury Department last December requesting $50 million for the company– and failed to disclose her ties to the bank to them. The government ended up coughing up $12 million in TARP funding for OneUnited — despite another government agency rapping the bank in October 2008 for “operating without effective underwriting standards and practices,” “operating without an effective loan documentation program” and “engaging in speculative investment practices.”
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123682571772404053.html
More:
http://michellemalkin.com/2009/03/13/culture-of-corruption-banking-hypocrite-maxine-waters/
Lets see, both of them are two of the most corrupt members of Congress with a laundry list of ethical and undoubtedy, criminal violations, but it’s all about their skin color, doncha know.