This is majorly not good. Maxine Waters should have known better.

[TayTay]

Honestly, this is blatantly bad. This is so obviously bad that my dog after an extended dinner of vodka and LSD kibble could have barked out a warning that you don't do this. Really, it is that oviously, clearly and indisputably bad.

Congresswoman, Tied to Bank, Helped Seek Funds

Representative Maxine Waters, Democrat of California, requested the September meeting on behalf of executives at OneUnited, one of the nation’s largest black-owned banks. Ms. Water’s husband, Sidney Williams, had served on the bank’s board of directors until early last year and has owned at least $250,000 in stock in the institution. Treasury officials said the session with nearly a dozen senior banking regulators had been intended to allow minority-owned banks and their trade association to discuss the losses they had incurred from the federal takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. But Kevin Cohee, OneUnited’s chief executive, instead seized the opportunity to plead for special assistance for his bank, federal officials said.

“Here you had a tiny community bank that comes in and they are not proposing a broader policy — they were asking for help for themselves,” said Steve Lineberry, a former Treasury aide who attended the meeting. “I don’t remember that ever happening before.”

Ms. Waters declined on Tuesday to comment on the meeting, or to say if her husband still owns OneUnited shares. Her staff released two letters that showed the meeting was initially called to discuss industry concerns broadly, not matters related just to OneUnited.

The congresswoman, a member of the House Financial Services Committee, did not disclose her ties to OneUnited to Treasury officials, who said they learned of them only later.

Hello! Ethics are not just for the other guys. We have ethics too. Rule number 1: don't do stupid shit. It's wrong and it's obvious.

[karynnj]

1. That is pretty blatant

[beachmom]

2. What do you make of this:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/13/us/politics/13waters.html?_r=1&pagewanted=2&bl&ei=5087&en=7d1acb28dcefe41f&ex=1237089600

OneUnited officials had separately been pressing for such a meeting, requesting it on behalf of the National Bankers Association, which represents minority-owned banks. Its incoming chairman was a OneUnited executive, Robert Cooper. But it was only after Ms. Waters intervened that the session was approved, Treasury officials said.

At the meeting were representatives from the offices of Representative Barney Frank and Senator John Kerry, both Democrats of Massachusetts, the home state of OneUnited, along with Ms. Waters’s chief of staff. As the hourlong meeting got under way, Treasury officials were surprised as Mr. Cohee and Mr. Cooper focused on OneUnited’s losses.

“They wanted money — cash,” said a former Treasury Department official who attended the meeting but asked not to be named, because he was not authorized to speak to reporters. “That is why they were there. It was very, very explicit.”

I really don't like that Kerry's staffer was at this meeting, yet we only learn of this story after some Treasury officials (perhaps Bush appointees?) decided to talk. What did Kerry's staffer make of the meeting at the time, and who knew about it?