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June 26, 2009
Democrats David Obey and Maxine Waters Waters in Noisy Floor Fight
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Obey, Waters in noisy floor fight
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.
The confrontation began with the two talking in each other’s faces and gesturing animatedly with their hands. Obey then attempted to walk away, but Waters kept following him. Obey then put his hand on Waters arm and shoulder, and Waters became irate.
Obey again turned away, dismissing Waters by throwing up his hands, but Waters continued to stalk him, talking to his back and making a shoving motion.
Waters followed Obey down to the well of the House, and as the confrontation — and shoves — continued, Obey turned and told her: “You are out of line.”
“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.”
Waters then disappeared into the cloakroom.
Waters and Obey have had an ongoing dispute about an earmark for a public school employment training center in Los Angeles that was named after Waters when she was a state representative.
Obey rejected that earmark as violating policies against so-called “monuments to me.” 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.
A Waters aide said that Obey had pushed her.
Ellis Brachman, a spokesman for Obey, confirmed that the dispute was about an earmark Obey denied Waters, but placed the blame on Waters for escalating the situation.
“As I understand it, she was the one who pressed the issue,” Brachman said. “The chairman repeatedly tried to end the confrontation.”
Obey-Waters clash on House floor
House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey (D-Wisc.) and Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) engaged in a late afternoon shouting match on the House floor after Obey reportedly rebuffed Waters on a $1 million earmark request, aides and witnesses said.
Witnesses, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it appeared that Waters pushed or shoved Obey.
The pair were seen shouting at each other and had to be separated by members -- who were gathered on the floor casting final votes before heading off to a party at the White House.
Waters, according a Democratic staffer familiar with the situation, approached Obey to ask him to fund one of her longstanding earmarks, the Maxine Waters Employment Preparation Center.
Obey -- who irked Waters a few weeks back by banning "Monuments to me" funding projects named after the politicians that earmark them -- told her no, emphatically enough to be heard across the chamber.
"I'm not going to approve that earmark!" Obey shouted.
The two veteran Democrats -- each pugnacious and 71 years old -- began shouting, with the L.A. area-Congresswoman following Obey around the chamber, reportedly suggesting he channel the vocational money through a local school district.
At some point, they collided, witnesses say, with one Obey ally claiming the lean Waters "tried to shove" the stout Obey.
UPDATED: 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.
"That's a point she was trying to make with Chairman Obey," Levin said.
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 may of the centers' state grants are on the chopping block, a result of the California's staggering deficit.
He refused to comment on the specifics of the scrap, saying, "I wasn't a witness, but it's my understanding it was a heated exchange."
Waters told colleagues that Obey "touched me first," according to The Hill.
"One testament to her work is the Maxine Waters Employment Preparation Center, a multimillion dollar campus providing education and employment opportunities to residents of the Watts area," reads a description of the center posted on her Web site.
Wild Thing's comment.......
Thrilla in the Congress........LOL Cage match, two Dems enter, one Dem leaves! Somebody call WWF Vince McMahan! Unfortunately, no shots were fired.
And the rest of the world looks on and as we see the dems in the majority not only destroying our country but they don't even have one ouce of class to know how to behave while their doing their dasterdly deeds.
These are the people deciding the fate of our country?! God help us.
Posted by Wild Thing at June 26, 2009 06:50 AM
Comments
Why oh why do we keep voting these whackjobs in?
They have no interest in America's well being! They just want the supersized salary and all the perks that us "ordinary" joes don't get. So they can be so much better than we are.
Snooty a-holes!
Posted by: Lynn at June 26, 2009 08:20 AM
Children acting like adults, acting like children. Or something to that effect. I guess the self imprtance factor was heavy in this little scrape. And remeber, we are dealing with "adults" who couldn't fight their way out of a wet paper bag with tears in it.
I stand on the descriptive term of Idiot Locker when refering to the congress.
Posted by: Glenn Cassel AMH1(AW) USN RET at June 26, 2009 09:36 AM
Lynn, you ask why do we keep voting these people in? I'll tell you why.
Maxine Waters and others make sure that there is a lot of Govt. money pumped into their districts, and those who vote don't want the cash flow to stop.
Over the past few years Maxine Waters, and her husband have been in volved in a number of semi legal schemes that are of benefit only to them. They have been called on it, yet nothing happens.
Don't forget, lovely Maxine is large on supporting Central American dictators, as well.
Posted by: SEAN. at June 26, 2009 10:26 AM
It is all about THEM,THEM AND THEM, they promise their voters the world on a silver platter and don't deliver, then blame the Republicans, and the voters believe it. She has told her constituents for so long that its the Repbulicans fault they still live in the Ghetto, and of course they believe it and keep putting her back into office.
Of course she never mentions that if they get a job they could improve their lives and they don't have the sense to even consider that prospect of it. So another generation of lazy misifts is created.
Posted by: Mark at June 26, 2009 11:01 AM
Another angry Black woman. Whats new? She has a school named after herself and wants more tax money thrown at it. What an ego.
Posted by: TomR at June 26, 2009 01:02 PM
I do not like Obey but I feel for him. Maxime Waters if mad woman but does business exactly like Nancy Pelosi.
Posted by: Avitar at June 26, 2009 01:03 PM
I believe THIS tells the TRUE story here....(from www.BLONDESAGACITY.com Thanks ALa)=================== Cities, States AND % of People below the Poverty Level
1. Detroit, MI 32.5%
2. Buffalo, NY 29.9%
3. Cincinnati, OH 27.8%
4. Cleveland, OH 27.0%
5. Miami, FL 26.9%
5. St. Louis, MO 26.8%
7. El Paso, TX 26.4%
8. Milwaukee, WI 26.2%
9. Philadelphia, PA 25.1%
10. Newark, NJ 24.2% (U.S. Census Bureau, 2006 American Community Survey, August 2007)
What do the top ten cities (over 250,000) with the highest poverty rate all have in common?
Detroit, MI (1st on the poverty rate list) hasn't elected a Republican mayor since 1961;
Buffalo, NY (2nd) hasn't elected one since 1954;
Cincinnati, OH (3rd)...since 1984;
Cleveland, OH (4th)...since 1989;
Miami, FL (5th) has never had a Republican mayor;
St. Louis, MO (6th)...since 1949;
El Paso, TX (7th) has never had a Republican mayor;
Milwaukee, WI (8th)...since 1908;
Philadelphia, PA (9th)...since 1952;
Newark, NJ (10th)...since 1907. (source)
There should be a campaign to bring political science back into the classroom (because it's obviously NOT there now). It's bad enough that we only have two parties...but when there is only one that retains power for too long...it can only mean rampant corruption and a lose-lose situation for the people. It's a shame so many in this country have no idea how our political system works and vote down union racial lines.
We live in a country where Marion Barry and John Street can be reelected. *sigh* by ALa / Blondesagacity
Posted by: pontiff alex at June 26, 2009 02:28 PM
Maxine Waters is the NEW Cynthia McKinney. Someone has to do it,
I guess!!!????...
Posted by: Willy at June 26, 2009 10:46 PM
