A Washington scandal in perspective (waters.rangel)

[Hannah Bell]

MOVEMENTS FIGHTING for social change shouldn't hesitate to hold those who claim to speak for them--like Waters and Rangel--to a higher standard than the run-of-the-million politician. But it's still a fact that bears repeating: There is a tremendous and pervasive double standard at work in Washington, D.C. And yes, advocating for racial minorities--or just being a member of a minority group--is an easy way to find yourself in the crosshairs.

Shirley Sherrod was fired on a dime when a video was doctored to portray her as refusing to help a white farmer, but the white police officer who roughed up Black professor Henry Louis Gates in his own home got invited to the White House for a beer. ACORN was barred from federal grants when it was "caught" offering advice to a fake pimp, but the mercenary army at Blackwater commits massacres and gets to keep millions in government contracts.

Does this mean that Black elected officials should be beyond reproach, criticism or censure? Of course not. But let's look at the charges. Waters is accused of improperly setting up a meeting between a bank in which her husband owns stock--OneUnited--and Bush administration Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson to explore the bank's eligibility for the government's Wall Street bailout, known as the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). OneUnited is a Black-owned bank, and Waters maintains that she sought assistance for it and other minority-owned financial institutions that might not otherwise have been able to get access to TARP funds.

Yawn.

Let's not confuse a molehill for a mountain. Paulson, who sat across the table from Waters' chief of staff in that meeting, should be up on charges for robbing the taxpayers blind. In broad daylight, he used his position in the Treasury Department to make sure that the biggest banks--including Goldman Sachs, where he was CEO before jumping to Treasury Secretary--would be quickly restored to perfect financial health with no strings attached, using public money...

Even more important to bear in mind: The biggest scandals of this year--by any normal person's standard of "ethics"--will never be investigated.


http://socialistworker.org/2010/08/18/a-scandal-in-perspective

[tblue]

1. Thank you!

I heard her on Pacifica this morning. I don't think she did anything wrong. We really need her strong and principled voice in Congress. I hope her constituents aren't swayed. I kinda don't think they will be. They see what this is.

[Starry Messenger]

2. k & r