Rep. Maxine Waters Under Scrutiny for Bank Ties

A quick trip around Hannity's America...

Troubled Waters

Left-wing Democrat Maxine Waters is defending herself against accusations that her close ties to a Boston bank might affect her ability to serve impartially on the House Financial Services Committee.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Waters has been closely tied to Boston's One United Bank since 2004, when she acquired between a quarter and half a million dollars worth of the bank's stock. Not only that, but until recently, her husband served on the bank's board!

One United then received $12 million of TARP money, and Waters said she was "unaware" the bank was bailed out, even though she called the Treasury Department on the bank's behalf. In a statement released Friday, Representative Waters said, "Treasury officials admit that the decision to distribute TARP funds to One United Bank was based on the merits of the bank's request, not based on... political influence."

I'm not sure how much credibility Waters has on banking issues, but we'll let you decide. This is what she had to say about Fannie and Freddie in 2004:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MAXINE WATERS, D-CALIF.: Mr. Chairman, we do not have a crisis at Freddie Mac, and in particular, at Fannie Mae, under the outstanding leadership of Mr. Frank Raines.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

With a keen financial mind like that guiding it, no wonder One United was having trouble!

Tough Crowd

President Obama went face-to-face with an unfriendly audience Thursday when our not-so-business-friendly leader spoke to a group of the top business executives in the country. That recipe for disaster lands the president in Friday's edition of Liberal Translation:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think you will find that this is actually an administration that also wants you to succeed, in the same way that you want us to succeed.

LIBERAL TRANSLATION: I want you to succeed about as much as Rush Limbaugh wants me to.

OBAMA: As I said before...

LIBERAL TRANSLATION: Oh man. See, this is what happens without my teleprompter.

OBAMA: I am a strong believer in the ability of the free market to generate wealth and prosperity that's shared across the board.

LIBERAL TRANSLATION: Keyword: 'SHARED.' You're not keeping your own money on my watch.

OBAMA: I think there are times where sometimes our economy gets out of balance. This is obviously one of those times. And so government has to intervene in a crisis.

LIBERAL TRANSLATION: And I'm the intervener-in-chief. Big business, keep your wallets handy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Mr. President, I think I'd stick to speeches in front of Democratic cheerleaders with prompter from now on.

Prez. vs. Pitcher

President Obama seems to be striking out when it comes to support from Major League Baseball pitchers. First it was the three-time World Series champion Curt Shilling campaigning with Senator John McCain during the 2008 election cycle. Now, one of baseball's promising young stars is voicing his opinion on President Obama.

Atlanta Braves Pitcher James Parr was asked by Sports Illustrated what he is "really sick of hearing about" and what was the right hander's response? Barack Obama. Parr told the magazine, "I'm not saying he's bad or good, but he's not the savior. With the economy, he acts like it's America's own fault we're in this."

I know, some of you are probably asking, "Why should the president listen to a rookie baseball player?" Well just think, even with his record of 1-0, he's got a better record than President Obama has in selecting Cabinet secretaries.

Cookie Crackdown

An 8-year-old Girl Scout is in trouble with the Girl Scouts of America for selling too many cookies:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILD FREEBORN, GIRL SCOUT: Hi, I'm Wild Day Freeborn and I need you to buy some cookies, because I'm trying to sell 12,000 to help my troop go to summer camp. And also, it's not just because of summer camp. Selling cookies will help girls across the nation afford to go to Girl Scouts.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

That was a YouTube video Wild made to sell cookies to her community. Newsweek magazine reports that Girl Scouts of America wasn't happy with little Wild's sales pitch because it bans the sale of cookies online.

Wild's dominating Web presence also ruffled the feathers of a few jealous parents. According to one parent, "If you have an individual girl that creates a Web presence, she can suck the opportunity from other girls."

Ironically, the Girl Scouts perform the cookie selling exercise to teach young girl scouts entrepreneurial skills. It seems like some of their young members have a little bit more business savvy than the higher ups. Good job, Wild, and I think I'm going to buy cookies from her online.

She deserves it, she earned it.

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