John McCain hates earmarks. If you don’t know that, you must have spent 2008 in a cave. I’ll admit that the procedure of giving out federal monies as prizes to congress members is a bit unseemly and has traditionally lacked transparency. It gives a ton of power to the cardinals of the Appropriations committees, and it creates a good deal of waste. But there are a lot of deserving projects that get funded this way. For example, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) has been asking House Appropriations chairman David Obey (D-WI) for an earmark for the the Maxine Waters Employment Preparation Center. So far, Obey has refused on the grounds that the earmark would violate a policy against so-called “monuments to me.”
Waters spokesman Michael Levin called to say that the center — which provides a wide array of health care, automotive, GED and job preparedness training programs — was named after Waters before she entered the House by LA school officials…
…The program Levin said, serves hundreds of low-income people a year and is located near four housing projects with sky-high unemployment rates. Waters’ funding request is needed to keep the center going, he added, because many of the centers’ state grants are on the chopping block, a result of the California’s staggering deficit.
Waters is making the case that the job training center was named for her years ago when she was a state representative, and so it really shouldn’t violate the policy. It might be a fine distinction, but she at least has an argument. She attempted to meet Obey halfway.
Waters revised her request to go to the school district’s whole adult employment training program, so the district could decide whether the money would go to the school named after Waters.
Thursday was the committee markup of the spending bill that would include the earmark, and Obey let it be known that the earmark would be denied. She approached him and complained.
That’s when things got ugly.
Two Democrats got into a verbal altercation — and according to one a physical one — on the floor of the House on Thursday night over an appropriations earmark one was seeking.
After the House floor had largely cleared following a series of votes, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) and Appropriations Chairman David Obey (D-Wis.) split apart from a heated conversation and began yelling at one another.
“You’re out of line,” Waters shot while walking down toward the well.
“You’re out of line,” Obey shot back before turning and walking away.
But then Obey stopped, turned back toward Waters, and shouted: “I’m not going to approve that earmark!”
Obey turned away, but Waters went to go huddle with members of the Congressional Black Caucus. She could be over heard telling them: “He touched me first.”
Waters was escorted by her colleagues into the cloakroom.
Obey then conversed for a few minutes with House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.). Hoyer’s office said the two did not discuss the incident but instead talked only about the appropriations process. Obey had been speaking with Hoyer and leadership staff for most of the vote series prior to his encounter with Waters.
Obey then exited the chamber.
But Waters soon returned briefly, again telling her colleagues: “He touched me.”
Who knows where this goes from here, but it is already pretty ugly. The Politico’s coverage makes it sound like Waters just got frustrated and shoved Obey. These are two very strong-willed Democrats with a lot of seniority. Waters is the third-most senior member of the Financial Services Committee and she chairs the subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity. Obey’s role as chair of the Appropriations Committee makes him arguably the third most powerful member of the House, after Pelosi and Hoyer. If there is a rift between Obey and the Congressional Black Caucus, things could get quite uncomfortable.
And, all over an earmark for adult job training in the projects of Los Angeles. I don’t know who started the shoving, but a little money for such a worthy cause could go a long way towards creating some peace.
I don’t know who started it, but I’m pretty sure who will get the flak for it.
McKinney redux, coming right up.
“Never shoulda let’m in, you know. That’s what started all the trouble.”
Is Obey, like John McSame, an anti-earmark guy? .. Or is he trying to screw over Waters because of something else?
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Originally established in 1966 as the Watts Skills Center, the center was renamed in 1989 after Congresswoman Maxine Waters by the LAUSD Board of Education. The center serves as a second chance for many youth and adults who are out of school. It assists in-school youth, providing them with academic classrooms that will allow these students to work with area high schools to support graduation, retention and academic success. The Maxine Waters Employment Preparation Center is unique in that it is linked with Locke Community Adult School and has direct linkages with high school students and programs.
“The expansion of this project demonstrates a renewal of commitment to work force literacy and career preparation,” said schools superintendent Roy Romer.
Considered a destination school with its many construction and trade programs, the center attracts students from near and far. The trade programs are linked with “We Build,” a District pre-apprenticeship training program that works with trained students to participate with the unions in construction projects.
Special projects at the center include the Alternative Education Work Center (AEWC), Counseling, Assessment, Mentoring and Placement Services (CAMPS), Special Services, We Build and CALWorks.
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Perhaps rename the center to its co-founder Dr. Charles Lang.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."Thanks for the background, Oui. Seems like a very worthy project. What’s the problem? It can’t be just the name. You mean our congressional leaders are this petty?
Where does the money for earmarks come from?
The fact that the black caucus jumped in on her side is shameful. Just look at Obey’s record.
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* Rep. Maxine Waters: The report cites a December 2004 Los Angeles Times investigation disclosing how members of the congresswoman’s family have made more than $1 million in the last eight years by doing business with companies, candidates and causes that Waters has helped.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."They sound like a couple of kindergartners on the playground in need of adult supervision.
Super Suckers, “Fight Song”
When did they first start naming public projects and edifaces after living people? That’s more fitting of third-world dictatorships and it gives me the creeps. Back during the first Gulf War there was a movement to rename a street in San Francisco after Schwarzkopf. Glad that didn’t happen.
they do it all the time here in philly.
There used to be a law, or at least a strong tradition, to wait ’til people were dead to make monuments to them. That changed a decade or two ago and the culture of narcissism trumped any notions about decorum or modesty. This is one case where the old way was way better. I suspect the fear is that if we wait until people die to make monuments to them we’ll realize they weren’t really worth it all along.
What I’m wondering most in this case is, did Waters do anything more for this worthy-sounding center than funnel taxpayer money to it? If that was her main contribution it doesn’t seem like an achievement deserving of putting her name on it.
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“Call no man happy until he is dead” said the ancient Greeks, who understood that in life it’s never too late to unmake a reputation. This was once an American creed, too: The U.S. waited 117 years after Thomas Jefferson’s death for a memorial, 57 years after Abraham Lincoln’s, and 52 years after Franklin Roosevelt’s. The Adams family — John, Abigail and John Quincy — is also due a D.C. memorial, thanks to modern reappraisals of its legacy. That one took 160-odd years.
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"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."